That's the heading on a post by Jason, who's serving in Iraq. Just as I think it's important for those who protest and campaign against the war to read the Iraqi blogs and question whether they might be wrong, I also think it's important for those of us who did support the war to read items such as this. And, don't be squeamish or annoyed and not read the Al Jazeera article that he links to. He says it's an "ugly truth", which means it must be faced.
I still believe that the war was just. In fact, the justice of the war was the easiest thing for me to accept. Saddam was so brutal and vicious that almost anything done in an effort to remove him would have been just.
Whether it was wise or not was a much tougher question. I hemmed and hawed over the decision, but I understood that the status quo as it was in December 2002 (or August 2001) was unacceptable. The situation in the Middle East had to be transformed and no transformation was possible as long as Saddam was in power.
Having accepted that the war was just and wise does not exempt me from questioning the administration's decisions with regards to how they've chosen to prosecute the war and handle the post-war situation. Again and again it has struck me that the war planners never really believed that they'd be in a post-war situation without the UN to handle the mopping up phase. Now American soldiers are doing a job that they may not be properly trained to do. I really don't know, but it's something that concerns me.
