On the anniversary of the war, Greg Mitchell over at Editor & Publisher has a fantastic list of questions the press should have asked in the lead up to the War in Iraq.

-- Why is the U.S. threatening an optional war if 59% of Americans do not support a U.S. invasion without the approval of the U.N. Security Council, according to a Feb. 24-26 USA Today/CNN/Gallup Poll?

-- If our allies have the same information on WMD -- and the Iraqi threat is so real -- why do some of our friends refuse to take part in your coalition?

-- You praise the Iraqi people, say we have no quarrel with them, pledge to save them from the dictator and give them democracy. Would you tell us how many of them are likely to die in this war?

-- You say one major reason for taking this action is to protect Americans from terrorism. How do you respond to the warnings of CIA Director George Tenet and others that invading Iraq would in fact likely increase terrorism?

-- Rather than make us wait for a supplemental budget request -- after the war has been launched -- to tell us what it (and its aftermath) will cost, don't you think the American people, who will pay the bill, deserve to know the latest long-term estimates before the fact?

-- You say Saddam Hussein has weapons of mass destruction and is evil enough to use them. If not during an American invasion of his country, then when? How many deaths on our side do you expect?

| Click here for the full list |

Yes, hindsight is always 20-20, but these are still important things to look at. As the war goes on, journalists need to learn from the mistakes of the past, protect themselves from being a propaganda arm of the administration and to ask the questions that aren’t always obvious.

I say all of this as if I am some hardened journalist or something. I’m still as green as a Granny Smith, but analysis is part of the learning process too .