For the issue of Iraq and how politicians treat war from the safety of their home or office, I cannot recommend the Fahrenheit 9/11 movie by Michael Moore enough.
It might be ten years old and focuses on a previous presidential administration, but it is a great reminder of what presidential self-interests can negatively affect the rest of the world, a bit like a dictatorship.
It detailed that Bush didn't want to invade Afghanistan to go after Osama... but eventually agreed to it on the condition that he was able to get America to invade Iraq after it.
It also noted that of the 500+ members of congress (the federal politicians) only one had a child serving in Iraq at the time he was filming the movie (2004)... suggesting that politicians wouldn't have been as eager to commit to Bush's war if people they were related to or even knew were the ones dying or being maimed.

Bush Senior did a half-assed job by leaving Hussein in charge of Iraq after liberating Kuwait, prompting Bush Junior to use his "personal army" (as commander in chief) to go in later, but also did a half-assed job by focussing on hunting down Hussein instead of regime change for the oppressed people of Iraq with a strategy of a stable transition.
(plus there was the added bonus of Bush using the taxpayer funded military to destroy much of Iraq's infrastructure and military, and then have construction, oil and private security companies that the Bush Family and their business friends owned, get exclusive government contracts that were forced on the new Iraqi regime)