Also- regarding those that “got it wrong”- this is too wide a category to throw a lot of people into including presidential candidates. Some got it totally wrong. Some were very nuanced about it-i.e. we should only go to war if…… Some have reversed since and especially shortly after the invasion. Some have been constructive since.

It’s human nature to have ears for what you want to hear and that’s what I think holds up Kristol and Kagan, Frum and the others. Whether what they say is in touch with reality is beside the point because there is obviously an audience for the good news, even about war, even if it’s fabricated, even if we know somewhere in our brains that it can’t be so. Reality is too hard.

from Kaiser:

Meanwhile, Kristol’s columns have never—literally never—seriously addressed the human costs of this war. He has never referred to the two million refugees that have left Iraq or the roughly equal number that have been internally displaced. He has not discussed the tactics of Shi’ite and Sunni militias very much, or even alluded to the basic fact—surely an indicator of something?—that no American has been able to go anywhere in Iraq without armed escort for years. And he has never said much about the Americans who are actually fighting the war. On September 23, 2003, in one of his first calls for more forces, Kristol made an interesting remark. “And contrary to what some say,” he and Robert Kagan wrote, “more troops don’t mean more casualties. More troops mean fewer casualties–both American and Iraqi.”

Disconcerting, Kristol wears a smirk only a mother would love. In this case a mother in academia, preoccupied with morality.

And for Hurley I am adding Richard Perle, David Frum and Fred Kagan.

I only listened to this once but I think I heard it said that the American people were 90% plus for the war. Not so. I have researched the polls. If you read them, a majority were not for the war in the months leading up, and certainly they wanted multilateral action if we did go. It was only after being demagogued on the Saddam-9/11 connection over and over and over did opinions begin to move in favor. What really helped it seems was Colin Powells appearance at the UN. If we really want to hold people accountable- at the top on my list would be Powell. He was someone who so many saw as a man of integrity. If he resigned at the proper time, it would have meant something.