"What if Bush has been right about Iraq all along?"

BY MARK BROWN SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST

Maybe you're like me and have opposed the Iraq war since before the shooting started -- not to the point of joining any peace protests, but at least letting people know where you stood...

But after watching Sunday's election in Iraq and seeing the first clear sign that freedom really may mean something to the Iraqi people, you have to be asking yourself: What if it turns out Bush was right, and we were wrong?...

It all sounds so reasonable doesn't it? I mean, maybe we just missed something right? We're not perfect and Bush really isn't the devil, huh?

WRONG.

The end does not, ever, justify the means. The Bush administration betrayed and continues to betray the fundamental things this country stands for. From lying about the reasons for the war in the first place, to torturing people during, to holding people for years with no accusation and no access to any form of legal counsel. It's all horribly, tragically un-American and just plain wrong.

For now, though, I think we have to cut the president some slack about a timetable for his exit strategy.

If it turns out Bush was right all along, this is going to require some serious penance.

Maybe I'd have to vote Republican in 2008.

Ah, yes - I see the point now; seems to me like just another of the "but we're being oh so reasonable" right-wing attacks on the middle.

Sun Tzsu said the best way to win a battle is to not have to fight it. If you can get the left and middle to keep fighting themselves, you can keep focusing on your agenda of remaking the world in the image of right, eh?