Iraq Civil War

This recalls Wretchard's analysis in a comment he left on Return of the Ripper:

"But it's almost like what happens when you do a cancer biopsy. One discovery leads to another, and you wonder whether you'll ever get to the end of it. But the alternative was never to have looked. And that's what the Left would have wanted. Never to have looked."

Right now we are learning lessons in Iraq that we never would have, nor could have, known otherwise. I still believe what I posted then:

Wretchard is right. By going into the Middle East we have collapsed the wave function, have drawn out real data, and can begin to see patterns and properties that we would never have been able to guess. We have set up the laboratory, and we are going to school.

Churchill spoke of how advantage is gained "in war and foreign policy and other things by selecting from many attractive or unpleasant alternatives the dominating point. American military thought had coined the expression 'Over-all Strategic Objective.' When our officers first heard this, they laughed; but later on its wisdom became apparent and accepted...Failure to adhere to this simple principle produces confusion and futility of action, and nearly always makes things much worse later on."

Wretchard writes:

"The Times of London interview of President George Bush last month suggests that at the highest levels American leadership sensed rather than calculated that taking down the most powerful Middle Eastern state would set a tsunami in motion that only the US, in its power, might ride largely unscathed."

Perhaps they did calculate. God Bless America, first and above all.