From the Boston Globe, “Hindsight Isn’t 20-20” by Jeff Jacoby The outstanding Jacoby, the lonely conservative presence on the Globe’s op-ed page, makes an excellent case for why the Iraq war was worth doing:
Hindsight isn’t always 20-20, particularly in wartime, when early expectations of an easy rout can give way to an unexpectedly long and bloody grind – and when victory has so often been achieved only after persevering through strategic debacles, intelligence failures, and wrenching battlefield losses. There are no guarantees in Iraq. As with every war, we will know for sure how it ends only after it ends. But an effort that so many critics sourly have called the worst foreign-policy blunder in American history – the drive to emancipate Iraq from a monstrous and dangerous dictatorship and transform it into a reasonably civilized, law-abiding democracy – looks increasingly like a mission nearly accomplished. Had we known six years ago what we know today, would we have done it? Differently, no doubt. But we would have done it.
The only problem is if we conclude that the Iraq War was worth doing, we would also have to conclude that Barack Obama’s judgment is fallible. Frankly, I’m not sure I’m willing to go to such a place just yet.
