Month: February 2005

What if Bush has been right about Iraq all along?

More good soul-searching from a recovering Bush-hater: Maybe you’re like me and have opposed the Iraq war since before the shooting started — not to the point of joining any peace protests, but at least letting people know where you stood. You didn’t change your mind when our troops swept quickly into Baghdad or when … Continue reading “What if Bush has been right about Iraq all along?”

More good soul-searching from a recovering Bush-hater:

Maybe you’re like me and have opposed the Iraq war since before the shooting started — not to the point of joining any peace protests, but at least letting people know where you stood.

You didn’t change your mind when our troops swept quickly into Baghdad or when you saw the rabble that celebrated the toppling of the Saddam Hussein statue, figuring that little had been accomplished and that the tough job still lay ahead.

Despite your misgivings, you didn’t demand the troops be brought home immediately afterward, believing the United States must at least try to finish what it started to avoid even greater bloodshed. And while you cheered Saddam’s capture, you couldn’t help but thinking I-told-you-so in the months that followed as the violence continued to spread and the death toll mounted.

By now, you might have even voted against George Bush — a second time — to register your disapproval.

But after watching Sunday’s election in Iraq and seeing the first clear sign that freedom really may mean something to the Iraqi people, you have to be asking yourself: What if it turns out Bush was right, and we were wrong?

It’s hard to swallow, isn’t it?

…

But on Sunday, we caught a glimpse of the flip side. We could finally see signs that a majority of the Iraqi people perceive something to be gained from this brave new world we are forcing on them.

Instead of making the elections a further expression of “Yankee Go Home,” their participation gave us hope that all those soldiers haven’t died in vain.

Obviously, I’m still curious to see if Bush is willing to allow the Iraqis to install a government that is free to kick us out or to oppose our other foreign policy efforts in the region.

So is the rest of the world.

For now, though, I think we have to cut the president some slack about a timetable for his exit strategy.

If it turns out Bush was right all along, this is going to require some serious penance.

Maybe I’d have to vote Republican in 2008.

For sure, dude.

Escaping the Quagmire

Ace of Spades is hilarious on the dilemma the anti-war crowd faces today: Liberal Legislators Seek “Timetable” For End to Discussion of Everything To Do With Iraq W A S H I N G T O N (Acewire News Service) — Calling their previous pessimism and gloom on the prospects of free and fair Iraqi … Continue reading “Escaping the Quagmire”

Ace of Spades is hilarious on the dilemma the anti-war crowd faces today:

Liberal Legislators Seek “Timetable” For End to Discussion of Everything To Do With Iraq

W A S H I N G T O N (Acewire News Service) — Calling their previous pessimism and gloom on the prospects of free and fair Iraqi elections an “unending quagmire,” several leading Democrats called for an “exit strategy” for all discussion of the topic whatsoever….

[Aaron] Brown immediately held an envelope to his forehead and intoned “Me, Peter Jennings, and Katie Couric.” Tearing open the envelope and blowing into it, he read the contents of the card inside. “Name three people currently being watched by friends and family for signs of suicidal depression, and who have had their shoelaces, belts, and Percoset confiscated by mental-health care professionals.”

“It’s more true than funny,” he explained wryly.

Liberal bloggers instituted their own exit strategy unilaterally and by and large refused to mention January 30th’s historic events entirely. Joshua Micah Marshall could only offer a single line — “I question the timing” — although the January 30th vote has in fact been scheduled for six months.

Some anti-war bloggers have developed a quick case of amnesia regarding the turnout in the Iraq Election – see Notes in Samsara for one example.

UPDATE: Perhaps our amnesiacs are protecting their health from this:

Jon Stewart, late in the Daily Show last night to Newsweek pundit Fareed Zakaria: “I’ve watched this thing unfold from the start and here’s the great fear that I have: What if Bush, the president, ours, has been right about this all along? I feel like my world view will not sustain itself and I may, and again I don’t know if I can physically do this, implode.”

Gloat, gloat, gloat.

UPDATE: One enemy of Iraq’s liberation still refers to the Baathist/Al Qaeda terrorists operating in post-election Iraq as an “insurgency/partisan resistance” despite the fact that many of them, like Zarqawi, aren’t even Iraqi. Self-delusion is a more powerful force than gravity.