Having opposed the Iraq invasion means never having to say you're sorry.

[Plaid Adder]

Can I just say, while I'm ranting, that I am so glad that I'm not Tom Friedman right now?

I mean, I've always been glad about that...but to watch him trying to cover his ass after having allowed himself to be led down the garden path is really quite painful. And there was a piece in the Sunday NYT by Ignatieff still trying to justify his support for the war even though now he realizes the whole thing is a disaster.

Those of us who knew it was a disaster before it happened took shit for it up one side and down the other a year ago...but now at least we don't have to sit there looking like iditots while we try to explain what the hell we were thinking.

It doesn't really compensate for the damage done, alas. But at least it spares us some particularly sad forms of humiliation.

C ya,

The Plaid Adder

[BlueEyedSon]

1. What is up with Friedman outing Rummy as a liar?

(on Face The Nation)
I thought he was with their program....?
When did he have his change of heart?
I wouldn't know, I stopped reading his OpEds 18 months ago.

[Cat Atomic]

2. We're just a bunch of traitorous cowards, on the wrong side of

history. Or so they said.

This is one time when saying "I told you so" just doesn't offer any satsfaction.

[Jacobin]

3. Um, Tommy was not "led" down any primrose paths

IMHO. He was leading the farking charge, e.g. his piece in the NYSlime a couple of months before the war titled "Just Give War a Chance".

He has his own agenda and is now squirming to blame others for going through with what he pushed for with every fiber of his pathetic little being. So that makes him also a coward and a sycophant. Fits his persona perfectly, so I don't understand the surprise at his "gee willikers who'da thunk this could happened" schtick.

[BlueEyedSon]

4. Does anyone remember TF's appearance on Oprah?

He pretty much said that the only thing keeping Iraq from disintegrating into civil war was Saddam's iron-fisted rule.

[BurtWorm]

5. Amen, sister!

I didn't read Ignatieff's piece. Was it in the magazine--the same magazine where he gave a big cheer for American empire? :eyes:

[Dogmudgeon]

6. The simple, humiliating truth

"I believed Bush. I voted for the IWR. Bush lied to me, and I believed him.

"I am ashamed of being party to this crime against the people of Iraq AND the American people. I will do my best to correct the course we are on, and I will stand before you at election time in judgement for enabling this vile decision."

Simple, yes, but it's difficult to admit you could have been so wrong. And that's the thing about lies.

I know, because I am in the same moral situation. Sure, I have nothing to lose. I could keep my mouth shut and pretend I was way too hip to believe it, but inside, I know that I am not. I probably would have voted for the IWR. I sat and listened to Bush's speech, and I did believe what he said, in spite of knowing he was an unprincipled liar. I didn't believe that he would lie to us about so important an issue with so deadly a potential outcome. But he did, and I believed it.

And, hell, I'm not even much of a hawk.

This is why I am so much more outraged by Bush's lying. It may excuse some -- but not all -- of our gullibility. But when the President plots and executes a series of lies about a life-and-death issue, it far surpasses malfeasance.

I was pissed as hell at Bill Clinton for lying about Monica, but it was a trivial issue, and I was outraged that Clinton would abuse the people's trust over something so small. But big issues? Especially those that the Republican Party prides itself on? It goes from being a political sex comedy to a white-knuckled thriller. Only with the wrong kind of thrill.

I thought, when it came down to it, when the issue was the security of the USA and the rest of the world, that Bush would do the right thing.

I have never felt so stupid for being wrong.

--bkl

[nomaco-10]

7. I remember the time leading up to the war.....

and I was being very vocal about it to anyone that would listen. I remember feeling very alone (I hadn't found du then) and feeling completely isolated when watching the news and reading the papers and hearing the huge poll numbers for those that wanted to press on into this blood lust for oil. I also remember thinking, what has happened to the people in this country, when did they become so blood thirsty and pious. It made me think again about the theft of the 2000 election and the ramifications it had brought on us and continues to this day. I remember trying to tell myself in the early days of the election, maybe he'll be a one term, do nothing president, maybe we'll just coast thru til the next election, I couldn't have been more wrong, but one thing I do know like you, Plaid Adder, I was right about this war, but somehow it's hard to feel good about being right on days like this and I get no satisfaction saying I told you so anymore, it just doesn't seem enough for the poor Iraqi people.

[Bucky]

8. I agree, Plaid. There's no satisfaction. War is touching all of us

In fact, one minor cost of war is how blasé I find myself being about the deaths from it. 200 Spaniards in a Madrid train station? That's pretty bad. 10,000 Iraqi civilians? OK, that's worse. Two dozen outside a hotel in Baghdad? No biggie, really.

I watched the fires still burning and the injured getting carried off on CNN this morning and I still don't feel a damn thing. I'm not numb, I'm just not impressed with double-digit body counts anymore. That's part of the cost of war, too.