This op-ed piece in the NYT is exactly how I feel about this whole crisis. Sure, Saddam has to go. But at what cost? This single-minded pursuit of one goal is devastating the entire free world, and we're the losers here. Is this the fall of the Roman Empire all over again? That's my biggest fear. We need a charismatic visionary leader, not an honest-intentioned, but bullying cowboy at the helm of this train-wreck.
Losses, Before Bullets Fly "So let's take stock of how our invasion of Iraq is going. The Western alliance is ferociously strained, NATO is paralyzed, America is resented by millions, the United Nations is in crisis, U.S. pals like Tony Blair are being skewered at home, North Korea has exploited our distraction to crank up plutonium production, oil prices have surged, and the world financial markets have sagged."Posted by greg at March 7, 2003 11:26 AM
There's a good piece on MSNBC too by Jonathan Alter
My biggest concern is not that Bush has already decided to go to war (You could tell that from the past tense he used: “I wish Saddam Hussein had listened”). It’s that he made the decision not this week or last but many months ago, and he never seemed to refine it. Now the consequences of the decision are about to be out of his control. “Events are in the saddle and tend to ride mankind,” Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote. Soon enough, we’ll know which direction.
Not that Bush will heed anything. We're going to war regardless of what happens.