{"id":32843,"date":"2013-03-20T10:27:59","date_gmt":"2013-03-20T16:27:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/03\/20\/the-reasonable-question-on-iraq.html"},"modified":"2013-03-20T10:27:59","modified_gmt":"2013-03-20T16:27:59","slug":"the-reasonable-question-on-iraq","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/03\/20\/the-reasonable-question-on-iraq.html","title":{"rendered":"The Reasonable Question on Iraq"},"content":{"rendered":"
Of course<\/i> it's a reasonable question to ask whether the Iraq War was worth it. \u00a0The only people who would say otherwise area those who don't want to face up to the results of their own actions.<\/p>\n

There is a difference between asking, "Was it worth it?" and "Should we have done it?" \u00a0The latter question does imply an after-the-fact awareness of the consequences that was arguably not present at the time, a completely separate debate. \u00a0But asking if, knowing what we know now,<\/i> it was worth it, regardless of what\u00a0shenanigans, misunderstandings, asleep-at-the-switches, lies, etc. took place at the time is extremely<\/i> valuable. Because it can (should, at least) inform the people and process the next<\/i> time we're faced with that sort of a crisis and someone suggests we just send in the troops\u00a0for a "short, victorious war".<\/p>\n

Asking if it was worth it is a critical part of learning from history. And those who fail to learn from history …<\/p>\n

(And, for the record, I was "for" the war, as the unexpurgated annals of this blog will witness. \u00a0I bought the rationale, I drank the Kool-aid, I recognized what a tyrant Saddam Hussein was and thought\u00a0it highly plausible that he was involved in WMD programs. \u00a0Heck, I think he would be today if the opportunity were there. \u00a0I lose no sleep over his fate or, per se, the fate of his regime. \u00a0But that doesn't change the questions of (a) whether the military action taken was, in fact, necessary at the time; (b) how much to trust in the future the rationale being presented by an administration that wants<\/i> to go to war; (c) how we should have actually executed the war and the nation-building that followed to ensure we didn't leave behind as huge a mess as we have; and (c) what to expect the final, bloody butcher's bill to be when we do decide in the future to "send in the Marines". Those are all lessons I've<\/i> tried to learn, and ones I hope to God this country has.)<\/p>\n

Reshared post from +Les Jenkins<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

"\u00a0I\u2019ve got to say I think that is not a reasonable question. What we did at the time was done in the belief that it was necessary to protect this nation. You can\u2019t, a decade later, go back and say, \u201cWell we shouldn\u2019t have done that.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

Um, yes you can. It's a totally reasonable question. Especially given the fact that the rational for the war was a lie and the administration at the time knew it was a lie, but they pushed it anyway.\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Embedded Link<\/strong><\/p>\n

Top Iraq War Advocate Says It\u2019s Unreasonable To Ask Whether War Was Worth It<\/a>
\n Richard Perle One of the most outspoken advocates for the war in Iraq said on NPR on Wednesday that asking whether the war was worth fighting is an \u201cunreasonable question.\u201d During an interview with Richard Perle \u2014 who was chairman of the Pentagon\u2019s Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee during the run-up to the war \u2014 NPR host Renee Montagne noted some of the war\u2019s more grim results: hundreds of thousands of Americans and Iraqis dead or wounded a…\n <\/p>\n

View this post on Google+<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Of course it's a reasonable question to ask whether the Iraq War was worth it. \u00a0The only people who would say otherwise area those who don't want to face up to the results of their own actions. There is a difference between asking, "Was it worth it?" and "Should we have done it?" \u00a0The latter … Continue reading “The Reasonable Question on Iraq”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4880,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/12\/14\/gotcha.html","url_meta":{"origin":32843,"position":0},"title":"Gotcha","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 14-Dec-03 10:57pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I suppose a comment or two on Saddam's capture is worth making. Anyone who thinks this will end all the violence in Iraq is dreaming. Anyone who thinks this will...","rel":"","context":"In "Geopolitical Brouhaha"","block_context":{"text":"Geopolitical Brouhaha","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/geopolitical-brouhaha"},"img":{"alt_text":"Paging Howard Hughes ...","src":"\/blog\/images\/saddambeard.jpg","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4161,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/01\/27\/the_case_2.html","url_meta":{"origin":32843,"position":1},"title":"The case","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 27-Jan-03 6:50am","format":false,"excerpt":"An article and a lengthy essay on the case for war with Iraq. Both are well worth reading. (via InstaPundit)...","rel":"","context":"In "Geopolitical Brouhaha"","block_context":{"text":"Geopolitical Brouhaha","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/geopolitical-brouhaha"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3734,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/04\/04\/meanwhile_back.html","url_meta":{"origin":32843,"position":2},"title":"Meanwhile, back at the slave block …","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 4-Apr-03 2:46pm","format":false,"excerpt":"A rhetorical question: How should the United States and the international community respond to a brutal, despotic regime in an Arab country, one with clear ties to international terrorism? And...","rel":"","context":"In "Geopolitical Brouhaha"","block_context":{"text":"Geopolitical Brouhaha","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/geopolitical-brouhaha"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3763,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/04\/01\/belaboring_the.html","url_meta":{"origin":32843,"position":3},"title":"Belaboring the obvious","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 1-Apr-03 10:33am","format":false,"excerpt":"It's all about oil. Economic interests, as well as jealousy of power, color the picture. According to the International Herald Tribune, French interests have signed with Iraq drilling contracts worth...","rel":"","context":"In "Geopolitical Brouhaha"","block_context":{"text":"Geopolitical Brouhaha","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/geopolitical-brouhaha"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":930,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2001\/11\/01\/press_release.html","url_meta":{"origin":32843,"position":4},"title":"Press release","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 1-Nov-01 4:23pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Now that's a press release Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld on the press constantly asking, \"Are we there yet? Are we there yet?\" In the end, war is not about statistics,...","rel":"","context":"In "Fourth Estate"","block_context":{"text":"Fourth Estate","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/fourth-estate"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":479,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/04\/09\/not_beyond_repr.html","url_meta":{"origin":32843,"position":5},"title":"Not beyond reproach","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 9-Apr-03 8:13am","format":false,"excerpt":"A number of folks continue to criticize Dick Cheney for his ties to Halliburton, especially in view of that company's awarding of government contracts in Iraq. 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