We Were There Too You Know

As the start of the invasion of Iraq quickly approaches, I'm going to repost an entry I wrote last year that has garnered more email support than any other I have ever written.

Essentially, just own up.

We Were Wrong Once, And Young

I've written quite a bit about Iraq over the last three or so years of blogging. At one point, it was probably my number one topic. And as longtime readers will recall, I supported the invasion in 2003.

As I've also written numerous times, I was wrong to have supported the invasion. I was a chickenhawk going around supporting war without willing to sacrifice anything. By the summer of 2003, once I realized we had no plans for a post-Saddam Iraq or put no consideration into the probability of an insurgency, I began to change my mind and thought the war was a huge miscalculation. I knew then that my original grandiose for war was wrong. I don't know how else to say it other than to say I was wrong. I was wrong about all of it.

So reading Matt Yglesias today go through 4 different reasons why he mistakenly supported war in 2003 catches me a little off guard. There's no need to give lists of reasons why you supported invading a country just because your government says it's a good thing to do while you gleefully cheered on others doing the fighting. I'm sure Matt has done this before, but just say you were wrong. No one forced your hand at support. There were plenty of people protesting the war. Huge demonstrations were being held daily. Whether or not some proper speaking Scotsman conned you into chest thumping war is merely an excuse to let yourself off the hook. You were wrong. I was wrong. It was a huge mistake delivered with vast lies and conspiracy theories. There's no other way to come to terms with it. We were wrong.

I'm not trying to pick on Matt here. I just don't see any reason to lay out various reasons for why you did what you did when you did what you did. The reasoning doesn't change the fact that you were wrong. And to me that's all that needs to be said. Because, honestly, not only were we wrong we were enablers and nothing we say now will ever change that. So don't even try. Admit you were wrong and learn to never blindly follow something as consequential again.