'These weary debates'
Historian Victor Davis Hanson rightly bemoans 'weary debates' still raging about the Iraq War. But then he proceeds to rehash the arguments and declares them 'moot' and 'over' -- in his favor, of course. ... I rather enjoy how Hanson cherry picks history for analogies to support his Iraq views. This time around it's the Rhine campaign in WWII, then Korea and then back to WWII and daylight bombings. But perhaps Hanson, who has previously mined the Civil War for analogies, should think of Abe and his generals: What if Lincoln had never sacked Irvin McDowell, George McClellan, Ambrose Burnside and Joe Hooker? ... I'm sure someone like Hanson could always smack the ping-pong ball back with a counter-analogy analogy. And I could knock the ball back. But that would be a 'weary' exercise, wouldn't it? ... But I'll stop here. Someone might describe me as a war opponent, as Slate recently did. For the record: I don't oppose the war. I reluctantly supported it at the outset (largely due to WMD fears) and I think we definitely need to stick it out now. But I have opposed the shoddy way the war was justified, planned (or not planned) and conducted. ...  ¶ 5:29 AM