The wisest course for journalists might be to begin sustained investigations of why leading Democrats have failed so miserably to challenge the US occupation of Iraq. The first step, of course, is to establish as conventional wisdom the fact that the war was never in the US interest and has not become so. It is such an obvious case to make that I find it difficult to believe many pundits and political leaders have not already made it repeatedly.

A year or two ago, my sentiment about the Iraq war was something like "I'd like to know the real reason why we invaded since its come to light that the WMDs aren't there." Now, I don't think there ever was a "real reason" ... it was just a total policy fuckup. A bunch of folks -- CIA, neocons, oil, etc, sat down and each told a different story but they all ended with "overthrow Saddam Hussein." So we went and did it. It took 3 weeks and minimal casualties.

The problem is that historically, "Iraq" doesn't exist. The administration's commitment to a "one state solution" doomed the whole thing from the start. For example, there probably ought to be a free and independent Kurdistan. That would absorb some of Turkey. Oops.

Nieman Watchdog - What’s wrong with cutting and running?