Informed Speculation

Add John Podhoretz to the list of prominent conservatives who have had it with Iraq (Never mind: It would help if I could read – that’s John Derbyshire, not John Podhoretz – fine gentlemen both, to be sure…jeez, kind of kills the premise of this post, doesn’t it?):

I’m with Bill Buckley and George Will. This pig’s ear is never going to be made into a silk purse, not by any methods or expenditures the American people are willing to countenance. The only questions worth asking about Iraq at this point are: How does GWB get out of this with the least damage to US interests, and to his party’s future prospects? I wish I had some answers.

Wow…that’s a long way from this (Again, not surprising, considering I HAD THE WRONG GUY! D’oh! The quote that follows IS JPod…):

…[H]ere’s what really happened in 2005: The Iraqis voted and voted and voted again. And no matter what was said to him or about him or of him, George W. Bush didn’t blink and didn’t falter. He stuck to his policy with a steely determination. Oh, he could have done a better job earlier in the year explaining it all to the American people.

And above all, the heroic American military has learned things about fighting insurgencies that will give our soldiers a new understanding of how to win wars — an understanding so deep that, when this war is won, insurgents elsewhere will be terrified to engage with us.

The story of 2005 is a story of determination in the face of adversity and peril — both physical and political. The people of Iraq, the men and women of the U.S. military and George W. Bush end this year with pride and the knowledge that they have done good for the world.

What happened between now and then to cause such a change? The shrine bombing? Inquiring minds want to know (The answer, of course, is that the idiot proprietor of this blog had THE WRONG DAMN PERSON!)…

John Derbyshire, by contrast, has been a pessimist on Iraq for quite some time:

I want U.S. forces to leave Iraq ASAP. If the place then descends into chaos, I’m fine with it. What’s that you say? It would be awful hard on the Iraqis? Probably so. It would certainly be hard on those brave, civic-minded Iraqis — there are plenty of them — who would like to see constitutional government in their nation. However, there are people like that all over the world — there are scads of them in China, including some personal friends of mine. (To be a bit more precise, there are scads of them who are Chinese, though many now live in the West.) We can only do so much. God knows, we have done enough for Iraq, with blood and treasure. The rest is up to the Iraqis. If they make a pig’s ear of it, that’s a shame, but I can’t see why it’s our problem. There are lots of messed-up countries in the world. Iraq will be another one.