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JW's avatar

This is a gigantic subject that will be with us in tangible ways for decades, even if we only consider the veterans that are suffering in so many ways even as we type. Just think about the one year typically spent in Vietnam vs. years and years (and more years) by the modern army. I personally know someone that had over 10 deployments.

As for the real time reporting during the run up to the invasion, I just want to mention the reporters at Knight Ridder/McClatchy that had the greatest impact on my thinking. The comparison to Woodward and Bernstein came up frequently as the truth finally came out.

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Thomas L Mischler's avatar

"Everything about democracy, especially the decision to make war, is an ongoing struggle and debate."

Exactly. And in our ruminations about what occurred 20 years ago I hope one fact will rise to the surface: labels don't work. Simplistic moral descriptors don't work. They didn't work then and they don't work today.

Nicholas Kristof published an editorial today congratulating George W Bush for the single greatest life-saving achievement of any recent president: the PEPFAR program that is credited with saving 25 million lives in the fight against AIDS. The responses were overwhelming: "But he's still a war criminal!" Many readers were outraged that Mr. Kristof had referred to Bush as "a hero."

The reason is simple: today, perhaps more than at any other time in history, we Americans have divided ourselves into two disparate groups. Depending on perspective, "we" are good and "they" are bad. It's all nonsense. We are all individuals, and each of us has good and bad qualities. When we view others or ourselves with this unidimensional lens, we diminish ourselves and our fellows, robbing all of us of so many of those qualities that might make us appear more human to those who think differently. Historical reviews such as this one help us along that path.

The conclusion of the matter, for me, is this: we need to look harder for the good in our ideological opponents, and for the bad within ourselves. Not for some ethereal, kum-ba-ya nonsense, but to improve all of our lives.

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