Does living in a deep fantasy excuse anyone from being responsible? Or is the attempt to hold folks responsible a futile engagement of an alternate fantasy?
No, I do not think anything I have written is to excuse anyone.
OTOH, it does seem to me that there is no benefit from promoting irrelevant connections.
Here, let me invent an absurd connection. Bush invaded Iraq because he ia a racist. I simply say that what ever else may be true, there is no evidence that bush invaded Iraq because he waS a racist. Denying that connection does not excuse Bush, it is simply an argument against inventing hallucinatory connections.
I propose that the poster who mentioned Wilsonian policies had not much idea of what were Wilsonian policies, or the context of those policies, and that I have seen no evidence that George Bush started out with a Wilsonian perspective on foreign policy which led him to invade Iraq.
IMO it is counter productive to say "x" happened because of "y" if the two things are unrelated. And if people generally accept that "x" happened because of "y", then they stop looking for why "x" actually happened.
IMO it is beyond dispute that the invasion of Iraq was poorly planned and executed. The invasion was "sold" to the american public though propaganda, spin, misrepresented facts, etc.
What remains in dispute is what was the underlying motivation for that invasion. IMO it is worth being clear about that in order for our nation to avoid similar misadventures in the future,
This all become relevant to our current situation because we have to decide what if anything we should do about radical islamist groups around the world.
Clearly the "invade Iraq" approach has been shown to be disastrous. OTOH the pre 9-11 approach of letting AQ fester in Afghanistan has large downsides as well.
I do not think we can ever make the world "safe for democracy."
OTOH the world contains real and disturbing threats that do not become inconsequential by following a policy of ignoring those threats.
