The Wages of Error

... are lucrative:

“The fact is that U.S. Marines will find more deadly weapons in the first hours of war than the U.N. did in three months. And by day two the world will have forgotten Dominique de Villepin and be listening instead to Tommy Franks, who will practice a different sort of diplomacy. Get out of town in 48 hours sounds tough — but not when it results in liberation, rather than subjugation, and reconstruction instead of destruction....

Now the battlefield, Thucydides's harsh schoolmaster, will adjudicate what talk cannot. The only question remaining is not the ultimate verdict, but to what degree the past failure of allies to support the United States emboldened Saddam Hussein, cost the American military tactical surprise, complicated logistics, and needlessly raised casualties.

Victor Davis Hanson

"War Has Come," NRO

March 18, 2003

Writers who have been profoundly wrong about great issues have a built-in market of readers who share their delusions and want clever rationalizations to help them avoid admitting their own mistakes.

My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer