The Echoes of War

Andrew Sullivan digs up this amazing Bill Clinton quote in the run-up to the Iraq War:

"[Saddam] is a threat. He's a murderer and a thug. There's no doubt we can do this. We're stronger; he's weaker. You're looking at a couple weeks of bombing and then I'd be astonished if this campaign took more than a week. Astonished."

Not to restate my post from yesterday, but what stands out for me 10 years later is how people whose entire branding was "seriousness" and "tough-minded" pragmatism were just flagrantly, catastrophically, perhaps unconscionably wrong. I can't decide if this statement is better or worse than Dick Cheney's "greeted as liberators" argument. It's not just being wrong about the war (which is bad.) It's the being wrong while blustering.

Just amazing.