Iraq - Guardian Admits It Was Wrong

Grudgingly.

Jonathan Freedland writes "We need to face up to the fact that the Iraq invasion has intensified pressure for democracy in the Middle East "

It was hard not to laugh as Freedland twisted and agonized trying not to say Bush was right while writing that he was.

This leaves opponents of the Iraq war in a tricky position, even if the PM is not about to rub our faces in the fact. Not only did we set our face against a military adventure which seems, even if indirectly, to have triggered a series of potentially welcome side effects; we also stood against the wider world-view that George Bush represented. What should we say now? [That you were wrong and Bush was right]

First, we ought to admit that the dark cloud of the Iraq war may have carried a silver lining. We can still argue that the war was wrong-headed, illegal, deceitful and too costly of human lives - and that its most important gain, the removal of Saddam, could have been achieved by other means. But we should be big enough to concede that it could yet have at least one good outcome. [You just said "welcome side effects" - plural]

Second, we have to say that the call for freedom throughout the Arab and Muslim world is a sound and just one - even if it is a Bush slogan and arguably code for the installation of malleable regimes. Put starkly, we cannot let ourselves fall into the trap of opposing democracy in the Middle East simply because Bush and Blair are calling for it. Sometimes your enemy's enemy is not your friend.

And yet you have been in precisely that trap since Bush took office.

Freedland there is no "indirectly" about it. People in the Middle East state emphatically that the Iraq war started the process towards democracy.

Ignatius interviewed Walid Jumblatt, the Druze leader long a critic of the United States. Jumblatt's words are striking: "It's strange for me to say it, but this process of change has started because of the American invasion of Iraq.

I'd call that directly, wouldn't you Freedland?

Yes you can "still argue" that there was another way to remove Saddam. I'd love to hear those arguments. Ten years and 18 UN resolutions didn't do the trick, so what's your magic trick Freedland?

Freedland is like a dog with an old shoe, unwilling to let go even though the taste has gone.
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