Friday, February 26, 2010
... I disagree with much that you have to say these days [invading Iraq biggest American foreign policy mistake ever? To paraphrase Stephen Daedalus, great powers don't make mistakes, their errors are portals of discovery, all that matters is being on the right side of history [good luck with that][but that's absurd, you're saying that ultimately nothing can be wrong][well, there's some truth to that... but that's not what I'm saying... point is if you adopt an extreme point of view, especially one politically motivated, that forces out the subtlety of an objective, devil's advocation analysis, you miss the wider, more informed, more illustrative context of events... if you want to characterize Iraq as the worst blunder ever that only has value to a person whose agenda predisposes them to agree with such an assessment... fact is, new elements have been introduced into the Mideast dynamic which may eventually work to the US advantage or at least engender more manageable scenarios than existed before Saddam went bye bye [but of course the opposite could be true][yes, but that's my exact point]... at the very least the US military now has a much more thorough understanding of asymmetric threats and COIN, extremely valuable lessons that can only be learned through misfortune [but you're a COIN sceptic!][true, but without demonstrable evidence scepticism is just posturing, therefore COIN paradoxically requires implementation in order to understand why it's so difficult to implement][or think of it this way: you needed Vietnam in order to understand the flaws Vietnam laid bare][what, so they can then be ignored in Afghanistan?][when it comes to war people, out of fear I guess, look for perfection, expect a flawless expertise... but it's really more often than not a trial and error thing]... that may not be pretty, but empires aren't meant to be pretty, they're meant to be useful... hopefully]: and history is literally overflowing with examples of great powers committing what seem to the short view 'mistakes', but in the long view are full of immanent value] but it's entirely beyond the pale for you to confess being a 'fan' of Sullivan - the man is a blithering idiot. You do your reputation no favours by making declarations like that...
