two quotes from a recent article by william f. buckly on iraq:
“one can’t doubt that the american objective in iraq has failed. ”
“for the administration, different plans have to be made. and the kernel here is the acknowledgment of defeat.”
william f. buckley is one of the most respected right-wing, conservative writers in america.
when the foremost right-wing, conservative pundit in the u.s says that the war in iraq has been a failure, well, that means that the war in iraq has been a failure.
just to put it in perspective, under saddam hussein iraq was a bad place, but a stable place. under saddam hussein iraq was a repressive country, but not a country actively involved in al-qaeda or international terrorism.
now, after the war, iraq is an egregiously bad place, and an incredibly unstable place, perched on the edge of civil war.
and now, after the war, iraq is a repressive country, and now it has become almost a safe-haven for international terrorists.
it breaks my heart to write this, but the war in iraq will almost assuredly go down as the biggest foreign policy mistake in the history of the united states.
and all of the blame has to be laid at the feet of the neo-cons and the bush administration.
their hubris and ineptitude have resulted in a quagmire that has cost $700 billion dollars, resulted in the loss of tens of thousands of lives, and further destabilized an incredibly volatile region.
-moby