No I-Told-You-Sos

[cal04]

Opponents of the Iraq War Voice Pain, Not Vindication, At Predictions They Could Only Hope Would Be Wrong
Sweet vindication. Who wouldn't want it? To be right. To be free of criticism and upheld by evidence, by actual proof, that one's predictions about a controversial war were correct.

It is the culture of this town -- trafficking in rightness. People clamor day in and day out, in that polished and politic way of the Washingtonian, to be proved right.

But on Iraq, the vindicated are pained. There is no gloating -- not with thousands of people dead, Americans and Iraqis; not with the Iraq war precipitating an ongoing foreign policy crisis that has left the United States' global image in tatters.

For people who were pilloried, penalized or warned to be careful because of their opposition to a powerful president's war, vindication is nothing to celebrate. It is a victory most bitter.

"Emotionally, it's a very traumatic and unhappy outcome." That is retired Army Lt. Gen. William E. Odom, head of the National Security Agency under President Ronald Reagan. "How can you be happy about being right about the disaster that's been created?"

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/03/AR2007020301373.html

[illinoisprogressive]

1. this is true. I feel no happinesss when a rw confesses to being wrong.

I feel bad for the person because you know they are full of guilt and that is something hard to deal with.
Some on the left are please and want them to suffer but, I don't. I just want them to acknowledge to being wrong and to try to make others like them see the light. I want the right to see there is no shame but, there needs to be more voices to combat Bush.
Hating back solves nothing. Trying to help them to make a noise to end the war does.

[Skittles]

2. I don't see any guilt here

I see a lot of ignorant assholes who would still vote for bush

[ixion]

3. yep, you said it, Skittles...

it boggles my mind to think that people -- who may otherwise be intelligent -- can be so pig-headed. :crazy:

[Skittles]

8. to be fair I do know a couple who voted Dem last election

but I know more people who still defend the indefensible

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

4. General Odom's statement from this article sums it up perfectly for me.

"Vindication is not pleasing," he says. "Even some of my friends have noted: the more vindicated I've been, the more irritable I become."

The "It's about time" reaction. MKJ

[The Count]

5. Yup. Tide has turned. No more "anti-war lunatics want the terraists to win"

Nice. Overdue.

[CBHagman]

6. No decent person could feel anything but anguish and anger.

It sickens me to read each day of what has happened in Iraq -- torture, bombings, shoot-downs, etc.

That said, I see tremendous insensitivity, self-righteousness, and utter shamelessness on the part of those who promoted the war. I encourage everyone here to listen to the White House press briefings and/or read the transcripts. You will be dumbfounded at the shamelessness of Tony Snow.

And the same goes for many an administration member, many a pundit, many a congressman, and of course George W. Bush himself. You will even hear the claim that continuing the war in Iraq will prevent terrorism stateside -- a foolish and dangerous assertion.

Really, the only decent thing would be for George W. Bush and his ideological allies to beg pardon of the entire world, particularly the Iraqis and those families who have lost members in Iraq, and then to set about finding a way to truly bring peace to the region. However, I credit the Bush administration with neither the competence nor the moral fiber to pull that off.

[Demeter]

7. I Feel Vindictive, NOT Vindicated!

Bring on the War Crimes Trials! Strip the evil ones of their positions, power, and assets and lock them up as an example of why treason, piracy, lying and all those other "bad things" are NOT acceptable from America's leaders.