It's Armageddon Time

Paul Krugman provides his own Memorial Day tribute, in his op-ed piece, Trust and Betrayal (via Rozius Unbound), noting Bush's words:

“In this place where valor sleeps, we are reminded why America has always gone to war reluctantly, because we know the costs of war.” That’s what President Bush said last year, in a Memorial Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery.

Those were fine words, spoken by a man with less right to say them than any president in our nation’s history. For Mr. Bush took us to war not with reluctance, but with unseemly eagerness.

Now that war has turned into an epic disaster, in part because the war’s architects, whom we now know were warned about the risks, didn’t want to hear about them. Yet Congress seems powerless to stop it. How did it all go so wrong?

Krugman reviews the history of this horrendous, but understandable war, which was engendered by a "nation, brought together in grief and anger over the attack, [who] wanted to trust the man occupying the White House." Krugman also says that although the public has finally seen the truth of their misplaced trust and betrayal, he addresses the disappointment that many on the liberal left felt when the Democrats did not hold firm on Iraq funding measure. He says that is a step too soon for the politicians and the public:

Democratic Party activists were furious, because polls show a public utterly disillusioned with Mr. Bush and anxious to see the war ended. But it’s not clear that the leadership was wrong to be cautious. The truth is that the nightmare of the Bush years won’t really be over until politicians are convinced that voters will punish, not reward, Bush-style fear-mongering. And that hasn’t happened yet.

"Here’s the way it ought to be: When Rudy Giuliani says that Iran, which had nothing to do with 9/11, is part of a “movement” that “has already displayed more aggressive tendencies by coming here and killing us,” he should be treated as a lunatic.

When Mitt Romney says that a coalition of “Shia and Sunni and Hezbollah and Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood and Al Qaeda” wants to “bring down the West,” he should be ridiculed for his ignorance.

And when John McCain says that Osama, who isn’t in Iraq, will “follow us home” if we leave, he should be laughed at.

But they aren’t, at least not yet. And until belligerent, uninformed posturing starts being treated with the contempt it deserves, men who know nothing of the cost of war will keep sending other people’s children to graves at Arlington."

I just hope we get to contempt soon. Saying that Bagdad "reminded me of something out of Armageddon,"CBS Chief Foreign Correspondent, Lara Logan, remarked about the deteriorating conditions upon her return to Iraq after a few week absence. See Crooks and Liars: “It looks like a wasteland”. I'm not sure we have much more time.

Tags: Commentary, Paul Krugman, Iraq