http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/columns/pressingissues_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003410810Richard Cohen on Iraq: A 'Sorry' Case The Washington Post columnist -- who once declared that the U.S. had "no choice" but to invade Iraq, partly for "therapeutic" reasons -- now admits things have gone wrong, and says that soldiers have a right to feel "duped" because of the "exaggerations" that led to war. But, please, don't blame him. By Greg Mitchell
(November 21, 2006) -- For Richard Cohen, the longtime Washington Post columnist sometimes accused of being a "liberal," being fatally wrong on the Iraq war means never having to say you're sorry.
Today he took the occasion of President Bush's visit to Vietnam to offer his thoughts on the parallels between America's two most disastrous foreign adventures. In doing so, he admits -- as John Kerry might have put it -- that he was for them before he was against them. But here's the twist: He argues that in each case he was right to push for war (even if they turned out badly) -- so don't look for any apology.
This from the man who, on Feb. 6, 2003, after Secretary of State Colin Powell's deeply-flawed testimony in New York, famously wrote: "The evidence he presented to the United Nations -- some of it circumstantial, some of it absolutely bone-chilling in its detail -- had to prove to anyone that Iraq not only hasn't accounted for its weapons of mass destruction but without a doubt still retains them. Only a fool -- or possibly a Frenchman -- could conclude otherwise."
Now consider his statement from today's column on why he backed the Iraq invasion: "In a post-Sept. 11 world, I thought the prudent use of violence could be therapeutic." Ponder that statement as you consider the tens of thousands of lives lost, on all sides, since then.
But the new column is one appalling rationalization after another.
(snip)
It gets worse. Referring to his willing "volunteers," Cohen writes: "If they thought they were going to rid the region of weapons of mass destruction and sever the link between al-Qaeda and Hussein, they now are entitled to feel duped by Bush, Vice President Cheney and others." I love that "others." Who could those unnamed others be? Certain influential pundits who once declared that there was "no choice" but to invade Iraq?
He goes on to say the "exaggerations" that led to war were "particularly repellent. To fool someone into sacrificing his life to battle a chimera is a hideous abuse of the public trust."
Exactly.
...more...
It makes me very happy to see this, given my stated opinion on the man:
An Open Letter to Richard Cohen By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Perspective
Tuesday 09 May 2006
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/050906R.shtml