The U.S.-led invasion of Iraq was a mistake that has made the world a more dangerous place, but a swift withdrawal would make matters worse, Pakistan's president said this weekend.
This is a relatively common refrain over here. I think it is silly. If invading was a mistake, how is perpetuating the mistake the best option? One would think that if we made a mistake invading, the best option to redress the error is to get out.
If you think that staying will create a better Iraq that negates our "mistake" of invading in the first place, it would have to be the opposite of a mistake. After all, freeing the slaves surely made the monstrous sacrifice of the Civil War worthwhile did it not? Yet stopping the Union 0ffensive anytime prior to victory truly would have made First Bull Run a mistake.
It was not a mistake to invade and overthrow Saddam. He will never get WMD and he will never threaten the region and he will never kill more of his own people and terrorize them into submission. The insurgency has been tougher than I expected but in the end we will hold free elections in Iraq and help create new governmental and security organizations that will provide liberty to Iraqis long denied that what we take for granted.
Musharraf is quite wrong. Iraq was no mistake. The world is safer. And we will make things much better if we keep moving forward. Oh, perhaps for Musharraf things are less safe. Certainly, he probably does not like having to put down his own local Islamists. He was safer when he could coddle them and point them at somebody else. Musharraf has helped us quite a bit and I am grateful. But we had to push him kicking and screaming to get him to help.
With all due respect, President Musharraf doesn't have a clue.
