What They Got Wrong

(updated below)

Slate has a series of columns from supporters of the Iraq war, to commemorate the 5th anniversary. They asked, "what they got wrong". Sullivan has delivered his. It's worth reading.

Glenn Grenwald looks at what others have said, and points to John Cole as a "real mea culpa".

Everyone.. all of these people.. Glenn Greenwald.. every single writer.. misses the point. They look at history.. They look at what they misunderstood.. or misinterpreted.. or didn't expect.. but fail to understand the ramifications of it all.

Nearly 3000 Americans are dead. Nearly 30,000 are wounded, many in ways that they will never lead a normal life. Over 1 million Iraqi civilians are dead.

And these pundits treat it all as an intellectual exercise.. as a class.. as some sort of "lesson" that they can apply in the future.

Even Cole, who Greenwald holds as the model of contrition writes;

War should always be an absolute last resort, not just another option. I will never make the same mistakes again.

No, Mr. Cole.. you should never have the opportunity to make the same mistake again.

Sullivan should no longer write about politics, nor foreign policy. All of the pundits should be fired, and not allowed to appear on the cable news programs. Bill Kristol should not have been hired by the New York Times to write columns. In fact, Kristol should not be published in any news paper or magazine, nor appear on any cable news program ever again.

The magnitude of the disaster is lost on all of them.. even Greenwald.. as it's become so much a contest to see who could apologize the most appropriately - but the fact of the matter is, over a million human beings are dead.

That is supposed to be a big deal.

But, if all those people who were wrong.. dead wrong.. no longer write for the media.. no longer appear on cable news.. how will they sell advertising for those publications and cable channels? They'd be stuck publishing and interviewing those who were right all along.

Yes.. all Americans would have to read, and see on teevee.. are the dirty fucking hippies.. the Duncan Blacks.. and the Digbys.. and the Kos's.. and we all know that those lefties aren't "Serious"... so that can't happen.

Instead, we just hope that those who were wrong sufficiently apologize.. and continue their trade, for which they get highly paid.. while a million bodies rot in the earth of the Iraqi desert. Hopefully these rich pundits get it right next time, since they "learned their lessons".

But what was done to America - and the meaning of America - was unforgivable. And for that I will not and should not forgive myself either.

If you, Andy Sullivan, will not forgive yourself, you should stop blogging.. you should stop writing for the Atlantic.. you should stop writing books.. you should.. I don't know.. go tend a quiet P-town bar.

But political pundits are narcissists at their core. Sullivan sees the hit count he gets on his blog, and thinks that what he is saying must be worthwhile.. because he - and everyone else of his class - thinks they are the special ones.. The ones that were educated.. or have a Ph.D.. or sell a lot of books.. and are invited onto teevee.. so that means they will learn their lesson and apply it to the next war that comes down the pipe.

Don't ever look for real justice in this world. It doesn't exist. It doesn't exist in politics. It doesn't exist in law enforcement. It doesn't exist in your job, or your business... or when you go to see a doctor.. or buy a house.

The only time you can find any truth at all.. is in the people you keep closest to you, and who you trust implicitly. There are people who will never let you down, or take advantage of you, or expect anything from you. That is the only justice that exists in your universe.

Act accordingly.

/update

From a comment to John Cole's post;

Fresh Squeezed Orange Juice Says:

From my heart, it takes an indescribable amount of courage to say what you have said here. I commend you for your bravery in admitting your mistakes. This is a rare ability in your line of work.

I've noticed there are a lot of fanboys on the internet. I suppose it's pretty obvious.

These people want to pat Cole on the back.. compliment them on seeing the light. It took incredible courage!! I just shake my head.. Who are these people? How is it they have become so mentally defective.

Cole's post was not courageous.. If anybody in the pundit community actually showed any "courage" at all, it was those that were right about the fucking war in the first place.

Using the word "courageous" can never apply to blogging in any case. None of these people are courageous.. they are assholes.. and asshole enablers.. and asshole apologists.

Want to show some courage? Pick up a fucking gun and go try and kill some Islamic "terrorists".

And another comment;

Conservatively Liberal Says:

To the holier than thou asswipes who have to dump on his mea culpa, I hope you are just as hard on yourselves the next time you fuck up.

If I fucked up on something that I had influence with, and it ended up with a million dead human beings, I would never offer an opinion on that topic again.

A better analogy.. I write software used in hundreds of Surgery suites across the nation. If I fucked up and people died in surgery as a result.. (suppose a bad drug interaction, or the wrong type of procedure performed).. I would go find a different line of work.

Or as Atrios sez;

No Dirty Fucking Hippies Allowed

It's absurd but nonetheless completely normal that 5 years later, anti-war voices are almost completely missing from our mainstream public discourse and all of the idiots who cheered this thing on are given platform after platform to describe their intellectual journey or whatever. I don't really understand the degree of narcissism that many of them exhibit, unable to recognize that what the world really needs is for them to shut the fuck up and turn their microphones over to people who didn't cheer on this horrible disaster.