Donald Rumsfeld has an Op-Ed in today’s New York Times. I love how he can continue to talk out of both sides of his mouth, I really do. We keep hearing about how this is a different kind of war, but he spends half the piece talking about a trip to Korea and the parallels between what happened 50 years ago and the events in Iraq and Afghanistan.
However, I do want to agree with his sentiments in the final paragraph, thanking the soldiers who are laying down their lives every day in Iraq,
You join a long line of generations of Americans who have fought freedom’s fight. Thank you.
And thank you, thank you, thank you for your service.
Still, on this anniversary of the beginning of the war, we have to go deeper than that sentiment. With everything we know now, about Sadaam’s acts and about what he didn’t possess, was it still the right decision? I don’t believe it was, but this anniversary also reminds us that we can’t change the past. The decision was made and we need to pick up the pieces and help the Iraqis build a stable government that belongs to them. I have about as much confidence that this administration can accomplish this task as I do that President Bush is reading Dude, Where’s My Country right now.
*UPDATE: James sees a different irony here.
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