A Conservative and the War

A reader thinks I'm still naive:

I'm glad to see the Geras quote (and your comments). As a conservative, I'm ashamed of believing in 2003 that the unintended consequences of war would not overwhelm the benefits. Of course I'm surprised by the degree of overwhelming, but not at all by the fact of it. I can’t honestly say I believed the threat from Iraq was imminent or substantial at the time: I knew it was a war of choice. I so strongly wanted the U.S. to remake Iraq (and was so frustrated with the Saddam regime), that I let hope trump judgment. 

There were better, slower and more careful (more conservative) ways of improving the lives of Iraqis without ripping that society apart. But I fell for the seduction of rapid social change through force, ignoring what may be the most obvious lesson of the 20th Century. I know you believe that if we'd just done things better on the ground it might have worked, but I disagree: this result (or some similar form of it) was inherent in the enterprise.  We should have done things better without going to war.