THERE IS THE PARTY OF WAR, which thinks the Iraq war is important and justified, and the party of peace, which thinks it is neither. And then again, there is the party of petulance, a bi-partisan caucus which seems to believe that the most important thing about the Iraqi invasion is the harm it can do their careers. Who knew in 2002 that the votes they cast then to cover their rears would expose them four years later in another direction? It’s all so unfair.

People have been doing this bad stuff for ages–recklessly launching these wild adventures, without warning us how long and how hard they would be. Washington never told people in 1775 that he would lose lots of battles, that the peace treaty wouldn’t be signed until eight years later, and that that first attempt at a federal provisional government would end in complete disarray. The people who showed up at Bull Run with their picnic baskets expected a good show and to see the Civil War wrap up quickly. Lincoln never told them the war would drag on for four and a half years, turn much of the country into a killing field, and cost over 600,000 American lives.