[lbo-talk] The War Is Lost

[Brad DeLong]

>Dennis Perrin wrote:
>
>>>It will be interesting to see what's said when he gets
>>>around to it.  My bet is on an incredibly serpentine
>>>justification that dares to slap, ever so gently, the
>>>Bushevik buttocks for not being sufficiently 'bold' or
>>>somesuch formulation.
>>>
>>>
>>>Either that, or he'll find some silver lining and will shake it in our
>>>faces, regardless of its length. Recall his recent blast from Iraq, where he
>>>told the NY Post that Iraqis were waving Old Glory and cheering on US
>>>troops. "You can't fake that," he said, echoing imperial journos of
>>>yesteryear like the Alsop Bros in Vietnam. In any event, he's in too deep to
>>>crawl out now.
>>>
>I don't know what's sadder; the fact that Hitchens decided on a 
>Grand Crusade that curdled into another Vietnam so amazingly 
>_rapidly_-- or that he'd had Anyone up for a Hitchens betting pool? 
>Which arguments are we most likely to hear?
>
>1. The invasion was right and just, but the antiwar movement 
>scuttled domestic support so badly that the Bush Administration 
>couldn't do it right.
>
>2. The invasion was right and just, and the antiwar movement was so 
>inconsequential and inept and childish that it had no impact 
>whatsoever, but it was fouled up by the halfhearted measures of the 
>Bush administration.
>
>3. The invasion was right and just, and the antiwar movement was so 
>inconsequential and inept and childish that it had no impact 
>whatsoever, but it was fouled up because of the lingering effects of 
>the Clinton admoinistration.
>
>4. The invasion was right and just, and the antiwar movement was so 
>inconsequential and inept and childish that it had no impact 
>whatsoever, but the unwillingness of other countries crippled it.
>
>5. The invasion was a horrible, horrible mistake, that he'd allowed 
>other issues to cloud his judgement, and that he regrets every word 
>he wrote in favor of the war and against its critics.

I vote for a cross between 3. and 4.: it's the fault of the 
perfidious French and of Bill Clinton!

Brad "Freedom Toast" DeLong