Bill's Notes

as differing point of view, here's an interview with a longtime Indiana GOP Congressman explaining why he's changed his opinion about Iraq. Link here

Pay special attention to what he says he's been hearing from veterans recently. I've been hearing the same sentiments from the folks I know who've served over there

(Note from Bill: I don't see how that's a "differing point of view." It's obvious Iraq is a mess. The question is, "What do we do now?" [BTW, I'm leaving this note here because for some reason I'm having trouble logging onto to my own commenting account.)

Dean sees the current problems in the WoT as a lack of moral certainty and consensus. He seems to lay blame on what he calls " the Jimmy Carter Delusion" and also on GWB's use of a "language of abstraction".

When a long-term conservative GOP congressman from one of the most conservative Republican districts in the Midwest has to withdraw his support for the Iraq war because his troops are coming home and telling him that it's no longer a war worth fighting - it is not a problem of moral uncertainty or abstract language. (and -BTW - Jimmy Carter really doesn't have much prestige around Fort Wayne, Indiana.) It's the logical (and predictable) fall-out from the occupation/reconstruction effort that was poorly planned and poorly executed.

The problem we are now facing in Iraq (and more generally in the WoT) are the result of politicizing military decisions rather than listening to your commanders in the field and making rational decisions based on the situation on the ground. (FWIW - that was supposed to be one of the hard-won lessons learned from Vietnam)

Bad leadership is the chief problem. Any analysis that refuses to aknowledge this for whatever reasons doesn't stand any chance of actually solving anything.

So - that's how I saw it as a "differing opinion". My mistake - I really should have been more clear. Sorry about that.

Just as food for thought - remember Kenneth M. Pollack? He wrote The Threatening Storm: The Case for Invading Iraq which was one of the best received arguments for the invasion of Iraq back in 2002.
He's written an interesting analysis of the reconstruction opertation for the The Middle East Review of International Affairs.
Here's the link