Friday, April 24, 2009

Between Iraq and a hard place

This is so true:
(Paul Krugman via Atrios)
One addendum to today’s column: the truth, which I think everyone in the political/media establishments knows in their hearts, is that the nine months or so between the summer of 2002 and the beginning of the Iraq insurgency were a great national moral test — a test that most people in influential positions failed.

The Bush administration was obviously — yes, obviously — telling tall tales in order to promote the war it wanted: the constant insinuations of an Iraq-9/11 link, the hyping of discredited claims about a nuclear program, etc.. And the question was, should you stand up against that? Not many did — and those who did were treated as if they were crazy.

For me and many others that was a radicalizing experience; I’ll never trust “sensible” opinion again. But for those who stayed “sensible” through the test, it’s a moment they’d like to see forgotten. That, I believe, is the real reason so many want to let torture and everything else go down the memory hole.

Let’s hope that doesn’t happen.
This is a very basic fact of the whole Iraq war experience. If you were questioning the logic that led us into that debacle, you were accused of being un-American, a traitor, and supporting the terrorists. Of course, you were also right, as history shows us, but let's forget all that . . . .

The polarizing event of this nation's recent history was a pointless war that has left us broke, exhausted, and less safe. But it was a mistake that the "serious" elites wanted to make, so it must not have been a mistake, eh?

On to Afghanistan, bitches!!!

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