Half Wrong

In the run-up to the Iraq War, the lies were flowing from the White House as fast as Dick Cheney could mumble them. Allies in the effort were being paid off, enemies were effectively disenfranchised by accusations of treachery. The Religious Whackos were tied up with stories of an impending Rapture. Greed conservatives were counting all the federal cash from the no-bid contracts they'd been promised under the table. And the Hawks were ready to kick some ass on an opposing military that hadn't bought a new tank in a decade.

Good times.

I was a pro-war liberal. My stance at the time - which Mr. Goldenberg can attest to - was that the Bush Junta was completely lying about everything they said, but wouldn't it be great if we could get rid of Saddam? I also recall saying "if they don't find any WMD they better damn well plant some" which shows the limitations of even committee professional liars like the Junta.

My contention was that Iraq could be toppled and a democracy built there if the occupation were handled properly, like we did in Japan and Germany after WWII (the big one).

And as I watch, with more than a little satisfaction, as Georgie sweats under the klieg lights, it occurs to me that none of the questions he's being pressed on (and continues to lie about) would be asked if he'd handled the occupation with the managerial skill or insight of a David Brent.

The State Department had a guide to the occupation and rebuilding of Iraq that was thicker than Ariel Sharon's waistline. They had experts - smart people paid to produce smart, workable plans - spend year creating and updating the plan. But the Rummy neocons chucked in the dumper. They got their easy victory over a dilapidated, disheartened, and outgunned Iraqi army. And then they let their ideology take over.

Now, since their particular set of beliefs entail never reading, researching, discussing, or in any way finding out any "facts," the management of post-conflict Iraq was doomed.

My vision for this wrong-headed conflict was that we'd beat Saddam (no contest) and immediately put Iraqis to work rebuilding their country. We'd have 500,000 pair of boots on the ground (that's a million boots!) and we'd provide security to all. We'd, of course, take all the munitions and nuclear sites (which have provided unlimited arms to the insurgents). We'd realize that the post-conflict power vacuum would spawn revenge-taking, looting, and religious authority.

We'd know all this because we're smart. We're not the idiots who have trundled across the region making one obvious mistake after the next. Aside from the deeply immoral acts that have been done in our name, I really reject the acts of sheer stupidity. I mean, okay you look bad for torturing people, yes. But you also look like a complete moron for doing outlandishly unintelligent things all over the place and denying it to people who've watched you do it.

Which brings us back to Georgie. I know it is a flaw inherent in the neocon that prevented allowing smart people to do the occupation after dumb people started the war, but if he'd been able to make that leap he'd be out of the woods now. It was possible to remake Iraq in the immediate post-occupation period. But the same neocons who have failed to govern America also failed to set Iraq straight.

So there's my confession. I thought a democratic Iraq with free speech could be a magnet for the next generation of Osama's coming out of the other oppressive Arab regimes. Smart young Arab men have only one outlet for expression: radical Islam. Every other means of expression is denied them. I'd thought that a functioning free-speech Iraqi democracy would be the place where an Arab moderate intelligentsia could grow and eventually make the region more free and more safe.

I was wrong.