For instance: the oft-repeated assertion that "There is no military solution to Iraq." (But a military presence sufficient to preserve order is necessary to any solution.)
Or the charge that "We haven't tried regional diplomacy." Nonsense, and Hanson explains why.
Most importantly Hanson notes:
This is another red herring. Regional players all had interests in Iraq. The problem was that they were never quite our own.
So before talking, they first wanted to try their hand at mischief and advantage, and only later, when and if forced, would resort to diplomacy.
Critics are not allowed to stop history at a convenient point — at Abu Ghraib, the pull-back from Fallujah, or the bombing of the dome at Samara — and then pass final judgment whenever they wish. If Lincoln had quit after Cold Harbor, Wilson after the German Spring offensive of 1918, or Roosevelt after the fall of the Philippines, then their presidencies would have failed and the U.S. today would be a far weaker — or perhaps nonexistent — country.Amen!
History instead will assess Iraq when it ends.
Read the whole thing here.
The degree of media misrepresentation on important subjects such as the economy and national security affairs is truly staggering. Media bias certainly plays a part, but for the most part it is simple ignorance and intellectual laziness.
