Thursday, August 24, 2006

Howard Dean was right in 2003, other Democrats wrong

Howard Dean, scorned as naïve, wacky, out-of-step, was right, and his critics were wrong. We have squandered hundreds of billions of dollars and thousands of lives, and the situation in Iraq is more dangerous than ever. American troops, sent to that country under false pretenses and without adequate equipment or planning, are now being hoarded around Baghdad to confront a civil war. Twenty-five hundred Marines are being called up for duty because the Pentagon couldn't find enough volunteers. The awful situation in Lebanon and Gaza is, in part, a product of the administration's decision to abandon America's previous role as broker in the area and tilt heavily towards Israel.

The disastrous course America has steered in the Middle East since 2001 has crippled our ability to stem the violence and create peace and actually emboldened our adversaries, especially Iran.

So as I think about the Middle East and the threat the situation there poses to our security and to peace in the world, Howard Dean's looking pretty good right now. - John Fairbanks

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