AUSTIN, Texas -- It is insufficient to stand around saying, "I
told you Iraq would be a disaster." Believe me, saying, "I told you so" is a
satisfaction so sour it will gag you when people, including Americans, are
dying every day.
I think our greatest strength is still pragmatism. OK, this
isn't working, now what? In an effort to be constructive, even in the face
of a developing catastrophe, I have been combing the public prints in an
effort to find something positive to suggest.
There is a general consensus on both the left and right that we
need to get more people over there, take control, and fix the lights and
water, for starters. The more thoughtful advocates in the Do Something
school, including Tom Friedman of The New York Times and David Ignatius of
The Washington Post, favor a broader and more active coalition of
international support, and the legitimacy that would provide. Kofi Annan, a
classy guy, had the grace to say after the bombing of U.N. headquarters in
Baghdad, "The pacification and stabilization of Iraq is so important that
all of us who have the capacity to help should help."