Pushback

Protein Wisdom patiently answers an anti-war critic. More patience than he deserves, probably, since said critic seems to have arrived at his mistaken understanding of Jeff's position by reading the severely twisted form of it presented on left-wing blogs. But as Jeff's beliefs about the war to overthrow Saddam track closely to mine, I think he does a good job here.

The Iraqis have voted to try for freedom and a democratic system; they are being aided in that decision by the US military and its coalition partner. They are being opposed by deposed Ba’athists and al Qaeda fighters. And, it appears, people like you, Bob.

I’ve taken responsibility for what my support for the war has wrought. I haven’t walked back my support, because the effort to me seems driven by the convenient intersection of American security interests and humanitarian relief (why Milosevic and not Saddam?)

What I don’t understand is, why can’t you and your friends on the left who are so quick to (mistakenly, and in my opinion, intentionally) assert that I have laid blame for the failure of the war at the feet of the left take responsibility for what YOUR actions have wrought—even if you believe those actions were justified? The best and worst of (subjective) intentions, after all, have empirical consequences. And to deny that the anti-war campaign, coupled with a media that concentrates on calamity rather than success, hasn’t had a deleterious effect on US will—and a positive effect on the persistance of the insurgency—smacks to me of willful blindness and, frankly, a rather patently obvious defensiveness.