It takes a big man to admit he was wrong. Well done.

Yeah, war is a fucking waste. It's revolting to watch chicken hawks sit in their nice comfortable chairs making arguments for wars that they would never actually fight themselves.

I may have been technically right about the war, but I've done a whole fat lot of fuck-all since, esp. compared to certain waspish Editorial Directors who on balance have done such a shit-ton of decent things in the interim that all good things are now well deserved.

It was heartbreaking to read you at that time. Admitting you were wrong (which, I don't believe this is the first time) is just another reason why you rock like gravel.

The default position on war should always be it's probably a stupid idea. The threshold for going to war should be ridiculously high.

'And in that time when men feel safe and decide to call war insane, take one moment to embrace those gentle heroes you left behind.'

I was against the war (not exactly a controversial stance around here). But I remember well the UNCEASING drum beat for war from all corners of the media in the months that led up to its begining. Even from ostensibly moderate/liberal media outlets.

It was enough to make you doubt your pacifism at times.

@5, in the United States (when we were still a republic of some sort) it required a majority vote in Congress. (Remember reading about that in your history books?)

Now, it just takes a madman in the White House with a hair up his ass...and it apparently doesn't matter what party they belong to either.

WAR!!! The ultimate penis enhancer!!!

Unfortunately, Cole is always a few years behind the curve. He still thinks Obama works for us!

And in that time when men feel safe and decide to call war insane, take one moment to embrace those gentle heroes you left behind.

I don't think even a cruise missile strike to every single one of these chickenhawks homes that kills or maims their family would change their opinion of war. It didn't matter that this war was unprovoked, unjust, or unwinnable, they just wanted to blow some shit up.

Good for you, Dan.

It wasn't just the op-ed writers. Hard news stenographers at the NYTimes and almost everywhere else were shoveling the shit too. And did it hurt their careers? What about the editors of the "reporters"? Editors' names should be on hard news stories too, and they should be held accountable as well. Finally, were the editors, reporters, and opiners who were less bat-shit crazy promoted or hired away? I'm sure the NYTimes and CNN are waving fat paychecks at them, the people who did a better job, right? Like this guy:
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/jonathan-land…

Thank you. Now go visit the raped, mutilated, and destroyed Iraqis to make amends.
Yes, in today's America, where we are awash in cowardice & blame, admitting you were wrong is considered "courageous." True courage means that you not only admit your error, but you do something about it.

Of course, I'll give Dan a pass on this one. While he hasn't been much good for the Iraqi people, he's done a lot for lgbt youth & sex-positive people. It's never enough, but it'll do.

I'm the exact opposite. I'm a hawk who supports using US military power for clear and winnable purposes around the world, and I was against the Iraq War since before it started. It was patently obvious that it was a put-up job, to score points for Daddy, and that Saddam had nothing to do with 9/11 or Al Qaeda and there were no WMDs.

As some of you have heard me say before: I stood in the middle of a burning oilfield in the summer of 1991, on the boarder of Iraq, and watched a burning well shoot oil out of the ground at 3000psi. It shot at least 150 into the air before it caught fire. It looked like a pine tree, with moving black bark. It was hypnotic.

Later I did the math, and I ballpark that the well when running was probably putting out at least 25,000 barrels a day, more likely 50,000 or more. Think about that amount of money coming of a hole in the ground. then think that within a mile of where I was standing there were at least 30 more wells burning the same way. Within 10 miles there were over 100. It never really got hot while I was in Kuwait, nothing a tri-city boy couldn't handle. Maybe low to mid 90's every day. It wasn't hot because you couldn't see the fucking sun, it was blocked out from the sky by black smoke. It's trillions of dollars on the line, and we need oil for all, or it's war for all. Every little little bit counts, when you think about it. Unless we really look at oil and really change the way we we use energy in this country and others, welcome to the paradigm. Constant war. The media, the politicians, and the people all need to look beyond the next election issue and start thinking long term. Sorry, but that means taxes and government and la dee frickin dada, doing things for the people of the country rather than the business of the country.

So stand up, say you were wrong, and here is the important part, MAKE A FUCKING INFORMED DECISION BEFORE DECIDING TO GO TO WAR NEXT TIME. Seriously, as someone who was a nobody in the middle of nowhere, think real fucking hard next time before being so cavalier about war, because we were right and you were wrong. Until you do all that I can't begin to start trusting you.

As one of the "squish-brains" that you and so many others were mocking relentlessly while we were busy being right about that war, I accept your apology, or at least I would if you made one. Mostly because it never really mattered what you thought anyway -- the war was a fait accompli and all you were doing was participating in the PR campaign. Try not to be such a willing dupe next time and all is forgiven. And remember, do not assume that just because Christopher Hitchens sounds so very British he automatically knows what he is talking about.

I would enjoy seeing you reprint Bret Fetzer's counterpoint to your infamously stupid pro-war editorial; he managed to dismantle your argument in a bullet-pointed refutation that clocked in at a third of your word count. Now that was a thing of beauty.

@16: Well said.
We have a powerful military, and we should use it if we have a good reason to. Libya was a good reason; there was a worthy cause, there was a clear plan from the start, and there was approval not only from the international community but also from the people of Libya.
Iraq had none of those.

#18, Wisepunk

The problem is that as long as there's no draft, most people aren't going to think hard about fighting a war as long as they don't have skin in the game. As a matter of fact, I believe the draft was eliminated as a way of taking away the ability of the street (and or the left) to leverage foreign policy.

Yes this war in my opinion was about open season for the oil companies and the contractors to plunder and steal as much as they could from Iraq and no bid contracts.

Fortunately, or rather unfortunately for the soldiers, we've stop lossed these brave men and women so many times that we don't have enough left in the tank to fight any more serious wars for the forseeable future, at least not of the military kind, unless you factor in putting down riots in the poorer nations due to rising food prices and government benefits that have been eliminated due to low government revenues and austerity theft.

Keller's op-ed piece was pathetic. Treating whether he was right or wrong as an open issue, deserving of analysis.

I must say that I don't understand how Dan could have pushed for attacking Iraq when there were millions of regular joe's protesting the war before it even started.

I was wrong and I'm taking this opportunity to say I was wrong for the *next* wrong thing I do. So if you don't hear me apologize for my next mistake, it's because I'm doing it now and, therefore, no need to do it after the future deed itself.

it must be harsh for the people who lost soldiers they knew and for soldiers who are now disabled to hear that it was "wrong" to go to war. what is the point of saying it was "wrong" now? i mean, really? it was never right or wrong. it is not that cut and dry, and we had the information we had at the time. i guess i just think everyone is insensitive to soldiers, both when we declare war and when we look back on it.

A little early for such a clearly articulated copy and paste isn't it? Maybe you should have waited for the 20 year anniversary of 9/11 just so you could be sure how it would turn out.

@27, Don't try to hide behind the feelings of the soldiers or the dead. I'm sorry that they went to war for bullshit. I'm sorry that some died for bullshit. Lying to them now, or bullshitting that their's was a noble sacrifice is only going to encourage the cycle and have another generation die for bullshit and lies.