Washington Post reporting on Barak Obama’s recent Iraq
speech:
He maintained that Bush could take politics out of the Iraq
discussion “once and for all if he would simply go on television and say to
the American people: ‘Yes, we made mistakes. Yes, there are things I would
have done differently. But now that I’m here, I’m willing to work with both
Republicans and Democrats to find the most responsible way out.’
“
Bravo. I think even the more responsible critics of the war in Iraq agree
that now that we’ve disrupted Iraq, we need to see that stability is
restored. There can be plenty of finger pointing about the motivations for
the war, and any fumbling of the execution. However, productive debate
should focus on what needs to happen going forward.
The finger-pointing is important too, in a sense. Learning how we got into
the mess would be a lesson that would serve the country well going forward,
and should be considered in the ‘06 and ‘08 elections by an informed
electorate.