We Were Wrong ... Sort Of

Thursday, 10 April 2003

Thanks to Gareth Parker, there's yet another addition to the blogroll - David Robert Weaver's Trenchant Lemmings. Under the title Is it that hard to admit?, Gareth takes various lefty bloggers to task for not exactly welcoming the end of the war, and goes on to praise David Robert for an "honest assessment of the left's wrongness":

As we all know, Iraqi civilians took to the streets yesterday and gosh darn it was great to see 'em. [...]

This watershed this early in the Baghdad end-game means those of us who believed there would be a bloody and protracted finale to this bullshit war were wrong. Not wrong to fear it; but dead wrong to expect it. I don't know how other pessimists feel about this failure of prediction, but I was simpering with glee as I watched BBC footage of Saddam city residents ripping off Ba'ath Party office supplies and pelting Saddam's visage with shoes. When you fear the worst, it's good to be wrong. Pro-war visitors are now encouraged to view my post of 19 March and hoot with derision. Hoot away, it's music to my ears.

Fine stuff, and a brave admission but perhaps Gareth should have read on a little:

Those of us peaceniks who never bought the "Weapons of Mass Destruction" casus belli du jour are now better placed than our pro-war colleagues in embracing such optimism. Intelligence experts have been covering themselves by suggesting the possibility of dire surprises to come, but I don't see much chance of same. If Saddam had the WMD option, he's left it very late to use. I think we all know what the reason for that is, and it's not because he's a big fan of The Wrath of Khan. Perhaps he's a chronic hoarder. In any case, I'd rather believe the best, than hedge my bets in hope of the paltry consolation prize of being right when something godawful comes down.

Gareth has a point - the lab reports came in, and it turned out to be not much of a war after all. But if he'd occasionally take the trouble to read his opponents' blogs, instead of cherry-picking them for things he can be outraged and disgusted by, he might have learnt that the anti-war case was never solely about the conduct of the war. For what it's worth, my position is that we done wrong but at least we can thank our lucky stars that it didn't go too badly. More later. Maybe.