Iggy's Apology

Just read this past weekend's NYT Magazine and what do I see? Iggy's mea culpa, "Getting Iraq Wrong"; or "my bad," as we say around the playground. I read it, then read it again, and I didn't know quite what to feel. It felt like an non-apology in the way only Iggy can do, but I wasn't willing to go through it again like I did for "If Torture Works..." (and "Lesser Evils").

Fortunately, Ram linked to David Rees' piece (ahem...),Cormac Ignatieff's "The Road", that did the heavy lifting for me (bless you internets). (note: you shouldn't read this "cyber-essay" until you actually read Iggy's first).

I just loved this part:

In conclusion, this part of Ignatieff's essay should have been called "All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten-- But It Didn't Actually Sink in Until Thousands and Thousands of Iraqis Went to Heaven."

And this:

"We might test judgment by asking, on the issue of Iraq, who best anticipated how events turned out. But many of those who correctly anticipated catastrophe did so not by exercising judgment but by indulging in ideology. They opposed the invasion because they believed the president was only after the oil or because they believed America is always and in every situation wrong."

[...] You anti-war people have got to admit, Ignatieff has you nailed. You dumb-asses who were right about everything for the wrong reasons, instead of wrong about everything for the right reasons. You lose.