Go, Atrios!

Atrios doesn't often make linkless comments, but this one is a doozy.

If things are not going swimmingly in Iraq, it is not the fault of domestic critics. It is the fault of the people who sent in too few troops and failed to plan for the aftermath of the war.

One should not have to have been 'pro-war' to be a critic of what's going on. I'm tired of people prefacing their criticisms with phrases like 'as someone who supported this war...' Well, you were wrong. Why should we listen to you now? There were plenty of reasons to be against the war, but the only one which was necessary was the fact that the people in charge were utterly incompetent - that people opposed to 'nation building' had no real desire to carry it out. Once their incompetence was clear, no other reasons were necessary. Even Tom Friedman recognized this was a risky venture, but he failed to understand that you do not support risky ventures run by inept lunatics.

Or, as I've been saying for two years, it's not that I think having a cruel totalitarian dictator running Iraq is okay, it's that I think invading Iraq is catastrophically stupid policy. That's not too rarefied a distinction, is it?