There has been too much time wasted on the Left blaming Democrats for the Iraq War. Bush and his band of fools need to be blamed above everyone else for leading this country into disaster. And if pundits come forward and say they were wrong, then I am willing to listen and be gracious in the face of their humility.
This post from Andrew Sullivan I felt was particularly poignant. He really supported the invasion of Iraq in March 2003. At first he only criticized the conduct of the war. Now he goes further:
http://time.blogs.com/daily_dish/2006/10/vive_la_resista_3.htmlI was chatting with some friends after the Maher show. They'd been against the war from the beginning. They were African-American and said it was obvious to them that the WMD argument was what they called "game." They weren't surprised. I was. I believed George W. Bush. And I trusted him. And as the evidence has poured in that my faith and trust were betrayed, my surprise has turned to rage. I'm not a generally angry person. But if I have placed my trust in someone on a matter of this gravity and I find out they lied, bungled and betrayed me and others who trusted them, then all I can say is: they picked the wrong guy to bamboozle.
You don't send 19 year-old kids to risk their lives and die to protect your own political power or advance your own partisan purposes. You don't abandon thousands of innocent Iraqis who also trusted you to marauding gangs of terrorists and murderers, and stand by and tell critics to "back off". You don't ask people of good faith to support you in a critical war and then secretly breach the Geneva Conventions and torture people and blame only a few grunts on the ground for your war-crimes.
The anger of the left, I realize, was always there. But the anger of the betrayed and decent right and center is deeper. Some readers think my anger has gotten the best of me. Maybe on occasions it has. But I'd rather be too angry than too afraid to call these people what they are.
There were Iraqis who also supported the war, and have personally suffered as a result of that war. Here's Zeyad:
http://healingiraq.blogspot.com/archives/2006_10_01_healingiraq_archive.html#116094864025429395Monday, October 16, 2006
Another close friend of mine has been killed in Baghdad. We had lunch together in Baghdad just days before I left.
I can't concentrate on anything any more. I should not be here in New York running around a stupid neighbourhood, asking people about their 'issues'.
I now officially regret supporting this war back in 2003. The guilt is too much for me to handle.
George Packer in the recent New Yorker is only a few steps away from entirely endorsing Kerry's plan (not that he'll give credit where credit is due). Andrew links to John Cole who calls the Republican Party the "Say Anything Party" so that they can stay in power. He's a conservative, too. George Will and Bill Buckley jumped ship long ago. What does this mean? It means there is hope that this country is finally waking up from their slumber. It starts with the talking heads and hopefully will end with the people voting Bush's enablers in Congress out.