Ok, I admit it. I’m in a weird place. I was completely against the war. I thought the reasons were bullshit (still are), that it was part diversionary tactic to get people to stop thinking about the economy and it was part planning for the 2004 election and part “Keep the war on terrorism going no matter how tenuous the actual connections are.” But now that it has started my attitude is one of “Let’s get it done.” Rather than demand we end the war, I’m thinking we should make sure we actually finish it this time. Do the regime change. Get Saddam out. And on top of that, don’t do our magic tablecloth trick (“The flowers are still standing!”) and vanish the next day but actually help the Iraqis pick up, clean up, and get something better in place (better by their standards, please, not ours). Heck, I’m even fascinated by the CNN coverage, something I avoided in ’91. I’m not sure why I’m suddenly a cheerleader. Maybe it’s come down to what Paul Berman is saying (and Salon is reporting). That Bush is an idiot, but he was right about Saddam.

Of course, as my friend Jim put it, “But bombing the crap out of the seat of past Islamic glory and storytelling strikes me as a Bad Idea…” and I do agree with that too. So, let me modify the stance I took in the previous paragraph: Let’s get it done but make sure that we do everything possible both during and after to work with the Isalamic nations. Basically, can we please stop pissing everyone off so much?