brainrow

Via This Modern World: This video is clearly from a comedy show. I sure hope it’s all a joke. (Warning: strong language.)

Wow. It’s been four years since the start of the Iraq War. Time flies whether you’re having fun or not.

Asserting that the war in Iraq “can be won” with U.S. resolve, President Bush appealed to the American people today for patience as he pursues a plan to tamp down violence in Baghdad, and he warned that national security would suffer a “devastating” blow if U.S. troops were to withdraw from Iraq next year as demanded by congressional Democrats.

That old familiar tune.

I was against the war, though I didn’t leave much of a paper trail to prove it. I didn’t have a blog at that time, but a few friends and co-workers knew how I felt.

It felt dangerous, opposing a war that had so much popular support. One friend, usually liberal and anti-war, supported the war and told me more than once to “shut up” when I criticized it in a public place. Just before the war started, apparently in the spirit of friendly advice, he told me I was going to look pretty stupid in a couple weeks if I kept saying the war was a bad idea. I thought he was probably right about that.

Atrios sums up the line that’s served the TV talking heads so well for the last four years, and which is still in use today:

All you anti-war people sure will feel stupid in six months when things are better.

Still waiting.

But I don’t feel particularly brilliant, either. I wanted to support the war. Smart people — people I respected — were supporting it. I firmly believed that Saddam Hussein had chemical weapons, but I thought war called for evidence, not just belief. I kept hoping for some argument or some missing piece of information that would let me change my mind.

I expected Colin Powell’s appearance at the United Nations to be the turning point for my thinking. Powell was someone I respected, and he was putting his reputation on the line. But when I watched his presentation on TV that night, I couldn’t help thinking, “Am I stupid? Am I blind? Is there a case here? I’m not seeing it.”

I’m still not seeing it. But the blindness and the stupidity — I’m no longer assuming that’s my fault.