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By Bill Altreuter

Slate is marking the 5th Anniversary of the Iraq War by having columnists write pieces on the theme "How Did I Get It Wrong". Count on it, nobody is going to say, "It was a stupid idea. I'm sorry." Nobody will say, "I now realize that we had no business invading a sovereign nation with no provocation. It was a violation of international law, and we should never have fallen for the overheated and mendacious rhetoric." None of these cats are going to say, "The ruse was transparent, and I should have seen through it." You won't see them writing "Of course I should have known that Iraq is a complex place which we understood poorly. If I'd considered it, I'd have realized that invasions like this are, as a matter of historical record, unlikely to be successful, even if we had planned on being far more brutal. Oh, and we have been a lot more brutal than I'd thought, and I am sorry for that, too."

Instead they will all say things like, "Saddam was bad." "Bush's plan was badly executed." "I wasn't wrong-- we are totally winning". There will be some people who will buy it, too, which is why John McCain has a puncher's chance in November.

Full post as published by Outside Counsel on March 17, 2008 (boomark / email).