At 12:12am, we get this quote from Orwell:
| "We are all capable of believing things which we know to be untrue, and then, when we are finally proved wrong, impudently twisting the facts so as to show that we were right. Intellectually, it is possible to carry on this process for an indefinite time: the only check on it is that sooner or later a false belief bumps up against solid reality, usually on a battlefield," - George Orwell, 1946. |
Two minutes later, Andrew republishes this letter from a reader:
| "Andrew, face it: The Iraq debate is so over, and the interventionist argument has lost. At best - and that best is very far from certain - Iraq will be an Islamist, theocratic, Iran-dominated state, even with the insurgency suppressed. Women will have far fewer rights than they had under Hussein; in fact, in large parts of the country their oppression will be total. Once the U.S. leaves, I would bet heavily that in time some of Iraq's oil revenue will be diverted to support Hezbollah and Hamas and others of that ilk, under Iran's influence. Democracy is great, but when the Islamist element has all the guns, and the willingness to use them, the moderates will be rendered irrelevant. We will live to see them curse our name.
I think Bush was wrong to go in as quickly as he did, and without international support. That was a huge error, but one that could have been salvaged - even in the absence of WMDs - if the war and its aftermath had been competently and honestly executed. It wasn't, in part because the war had to be sold as a low-cost operation to gain public support, but mostly because - it is now clear - George Bush is one of the most mediocre presidents to ever hold that office. Even worse, as the Katrina experience revealed, he lacks a fundamental moral seriousness, his professed religiosity notwithstanding. I first realized this the night of that now infamous correspondents' dinner, when he was making jokes about not finding weapons of mass destruction. Try to imagine Abe Lincoln or FDR doing something like that during wartime. The consequences in Iraq of this failed leader are apparent - though for some reason not to you. At some point, surely, experience must triumph over hope. Andrew, that point's been reached." |
I can't imagine the order was an accident, was it? Is Andrew finally about to admit that this policy, a policy he supported vigorously from the beginning, has been a complete and total failure? Or was it just an accident that one post followed the other?
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