<<< As a result, this war's moral costs have been higher than we foresaw. The deaths of any Americans, and any innocent Iraqis, would have been painful. But, because Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and President Bush refused to listen to their generals and send enough troops, hundreds of Americans and thousands of Iraqis have died needlessly. Because Rumsfeld, Bush, and Attorney General John Ashcroft winked at torture, it will take years for America to regain the moral credibility it needs to effectively champion human rights. And, just as incompetence in Somalia led to inaction in Rwanda, the Iraq war could--in a terrible irony--turn Americans against intervention the next time innocents are slaughtered.
With all these tragedies, how can there still be a moral case for the war in Iraq? Because Iraqis today--no matter how scared and how bitter--are, in some meaningful sense, free.>>>
What tortured logic (pardon the phrase).
The architects of this war did not try to sell us on the moral case as the reason we went to war.
Okay, we made a mistake. Well intentioned mistakes are made. The problem however, is that we have not admitted to any mistakes.
It is something we never learn. It is often times not the mistake that is costly, but the cover up is - in this case, not owning up to mistakes.
High boastings by the proud, bring sorrow to the height, to punish pride. |
