The Iraq War Was A Mistake And Nothing Will Change That

I mention this again because this, like almost everything else written about the subject, suggests otherwise.

Even if (as is extremely unlikely) the war somehow miraculously turns out to have been for the best in the long run, it will still have been a mistake. That is to say: it was a stupid idea, undertaken for bad reasons at pretty much exactly the worst possible time.

Imagine a doctor who discovers that his patient has malaria, and who decides to lop off his leg instead of treating the disease, because "there are gremlins in it." Now, even if it turns out that, unbeknownst to anyone, there was cancer in the foot, the decision was a mistake and the doctor is an idiot.

Unlikely future contingencies can make a bad decision a happy accident, but they cannot make bad decisions good.