Comments on: Hitchens Confessions

By: Boyd

Boyd — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:00:00 +0000

Thanks for the advice, Hal. Curiously, though, I'm not ashamed.

I wonder, does that make me stupid, a right wing ditto-head, or an oil baron? Given a choice, I'd go with the oil baron thing.

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By: melvin toast

melvin toast — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:00:00 +0000

Why is foreign policy colored by how easy something is? It's easiest to do nothing. It's easier for a parent not to discipline his child. It's hard to invade Iwo Jima and Normandy. It's hard to go toe to toe with the Soviet Union. You have to focus on the consequences. A lot of the time I think pundits live on some Star Trek planet where everyone is happy and no one ever fights. They can't conceive of a world where everything doesn't slot into some well known model. Go watch Rummy news conferences and look at how stupid the reporters sound! Should we have cancelled the second World War because things didn't turn out so well at the Bulge? You can be critical of the execution but how can you be anti? Surely a poorly executed campaign against terrorism is better than none at all. P.S. By you I don't mean James. I mean the anti-wars who used to be pro-war...like edwards and kerry and gebhard.

By: James Joyner

James Joyner — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:00:00 +0000

Honestly, I think Kerry, Edwards, and Gephardt are just playing partisan politics--taking advantage of the opportunity to bring down Bush's poll numbers.

By: Mark Mecca

Mark Mecca — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:00:00 +0000

Melvin,
I agree with you. I think the bar is being raised so high that no one can meet it. It is nice to have a standard of perfection but with all the variables involved I don't see how it can be met. With 24/7 news and commentary, it is real easy to become terrified everytime something goes wrong.

I'm still someone amused about people saying we didn't have a plan. I'm sure we had plenty of plans but the longer things go on the harder and harder it is to stick with the plan. I'd rather have a good vision and be flexible based on what happens on the ground.

Mark

By: Boyd

Boyd — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:00:00 +0000

Another example of "Perfection is the enemy of good-enough."

By: Hal

Hal — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:00:00 +0000

So, the bar is being lowered such that even an ant can jump over it.

Our plan was Chalabi, a known fraud BEFORE the war. After that fell apart, we looked for a committee of Chalabis. When that fell apart, we started looking for a way out.

It isn't flexibility. It's poor compensation for any realistic planning that didn't rely on a complete fraud.

Anyone who doesn't tell you their plan before the fact either doesn't have one or the one that they have is laughable. As we can see in hindsight, it was the latter.

This is precisely the reason why our congress was pushing the Administration to reveal their plans about the occupation. And since they refused to be critisized on the laughable one they had, our troops are now paying the price.

What's more pathetic (if I may use that highly charged term) is that you guys are enablers and apologists for this horrendous behavior.

Really. You should be ashamed of yourselves.