Legal Commentary

Obama Was Right About Iraq

By Big Tent Democrat

Glenn Greenwald highlights this strange article by the NYTimes John Burns:

Hindsight is a powerful thing, and there have been plenty of voices amid the tragedy that has unfolded since the invasion to say, in effect, “I told you so.” But among that band of reporters — men and women who thought we knew something about Iraq, and for the most part sympathized with the joy Iraqis felt at what many were unashamed then to call their “liberation” — there were few, if any, who foresaw the extent of the violence that would follow or the political convulsion it would cause in Iraq, America and elsewhere. We could not know then, though if we had been wiser we might have guessed[.]

(Emphasis supplied.) Foresight is a more powerful thing than hindsight. And many, many, many people had the foresight and wisdom that people like John Burns (and more importantly, George Bush, Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz) lacked. Of course, as my headline indicates, our current President was one of them. But so did many other people - including Speaker Pelosi, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin and hundreds of other Democrats (and also Ron Paul), who voted against the Iraq Debacle.

It is a strange thing when an allegedly objective reporter sets aside the record - in this case, the Congressional Record - in defending his own myopia. John Burns blew it. So did a lot of people. But John Burns needs to stop pretending "nobody could have known" - because the record is clear - many, many, many people did know and said so and voted so at the time.

Speaking for me only

Full post as published by TalkLeft on August 31, 2010 (boomark / email).