Won and lost in Iraq

Along with Congress and the American people, we supported the war to depose Saddam Hussein. Ten years on, how is the war to be judged? As the saying attributed to Kierkegaard has it, life must be lived forward, but it can only be understood backward. I don’t think ten years’ time gives us enough perspective in this case, and judgment is complicated by Obama’s abandonment of the project.

Among those whose judgment I think yields understanding, I recommend Fouad Ajami’s “Ten years ago an honorable war began with wide support” and Victor Davis Hanson’s “Why did we invade Iraq.” Of all that I have read over the past week, however, I would most like to associate myself with Mark Steyn’s retrospective.

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