A QUESTION ON IRAQ:
In a letter the other day, I was asked why I've mostly been silent on Iraq since about mid-way through the war, after being so vocal leading up to it.
The answer to that is simple. I was for the war (big surprise), and had a serious interest in the policy and public discourse that led up to it, and that surrounded much of the early days of the campaign. What I am not, is a military strategist. The nuts and bolts, and hows and whys of conflict are not something I feel knowledgible enough about to really have made a worthwhile contribution in that frame of discourse. I know lots of other bloggers, pundits, and morons felt the need to continue in the same veins in which we had all talked (and sometimes blathered on) leading up to the war. Some folks who continued the conversation had something to say, a lot of others, did not.
Also, I did not want this Website to become a railing post against the Left, and it could easily have gone in that direction. There was so much spinning going on in the Left (because of the war), that for a moment it seemed some of them might spin themselves completely out of control. What I found the most appalling was the emphasis placed on supporting the troops, while slamming the Administration. (Supposedly something learned from the Left’s PR disasters following Nam.) Now, don’t get me wrong, I think some of them truly believed in the idea that one can do both…and perhaps, on some level one legitimately can. Most of it seemed from the outside, however, like disingenuous rhetoric. Just as we now unfortunately know that most of the conversation about WMDs in Saddam’s Iraq was disingenuous rhetoric as well. That, however, is a topic for another day.
Now that the war is over, and there have been a few weeks of occupation, I will be adding my thoughts on the rebuilding of Iraq when I have something worthwhile to say. At the moment, I continue to do the most intelligent thing I know to do…I am simply observing.
There are others, on both sides, that would do well to do likewise.
posted by Joshua @ 11:45 AM
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