I never supported the war in Iraq. I always thought it was unjustified and that the Bush administration was using WMD as a convenient excuse, but I was willing to give the politicians the benefit of the doubt. After all, I didn’t have access to the classified and secret information that they did. I really — quite possibly, naively — thought that for something as important as giving the president the permission to take the country to war, our Congress-folk would rise above politics and vote the right way. Since they voted for war, I hesitantly agreed that we must need to go, even though I hoped we would do it in a multilateral way. As more and more our allies slipped away from supporting a “sooner, rather than later” invasion of Iraq, my doubts about the intentions of our Congress and our president grew. Didn’t they have access to most of the same classified data our government did? If they can’t support an invasion, then maybe it’s not even a lay-up, let alone a slam dunk?

After we invaded and found no WMD, it only strengthened my belief that this was illegitimate. Watching the Bush administration flip through new excuses for the invasion would have been comical if wasn’t for what they were trying to excuse. I have no idea what the real reason for the invasion is and probably never will know, but I cannot believe it is anything they are shoveling to us. I do remember the says after Bush v. Gore was decided and the Bush transition team came in with a compressed timeline. One things that stuck out to me even then was their (and especially Cheney’s) heightened interest in Iraq. I believe that 9/11, WMD, “Freeing the Iraqis”, “Bringing the fight to the terrorists”, etc., are all a smoke screen for whatever was driving them in early January, 2000.

That said, I’ve had a big problem with those who have called for us to leave and to leave quickly. We made this mess, we need to stay and clean it up. I had not read anything that convinced me that Iraq would be better off if we cut and run instead of staying to the end. That is, until today. If what this guy says about Iraqi attitudes toward each other and what’s driving them is true, then it really makes sense for us to get out sooner than later.