Why didn't you state that you thought my post was "bullshit" in post 18? Ironic, given the title of this essay! You must be anal retentive!

Because I wasn't quite angry enough at the time.

But I still don't get your position over the war in Iraq.

And I've about had enough of explaining the same bloody thing over and over again.

The invasion by US forces already occurred in April 2003. So why have you been arguing the case for “having genuine and honest concerns that the US and allies were making a serious mistake in invading Iraq” since then, with very few words (if any) in praise of the war effort?

I was 100% for our troops once they'd gone in. I don't think I was posting regularly at SOLO at the time, but I had been questioning the wisdom of the impending invasion elsewhere, which I stopped doing the moment war was declared, out of loyalty to our lads. This was also before Chris wrote his "Reclaiming Rand's Radical Legacy" essay, which crystallised a number of the conclusions I'd already been coming to myself.

It doesn’t add up. As you put it “once our troops were in [you] never for one second wished them anything but absolute success”. Well I have news for you; they have been in for over a year now. Where are all your well-wishes for the war-effort?

I have news for you: the war in Iraq has, according to Bush and Blair, been over for quite some time.

Even if you do manage to dig some up, you must realise that you have not given that impression at all, but quite the reverse. So maybe you should set the record straight unequivocally and let us know what you DO think of the current Iraq war!

Why don't YOU dig up a post of mine saying I hope our side loses? It has nothing to do with me giving the impression that I wanted our side to lose, and everything to do with you jumping without basis from what I did say to presuming that I believed something I did not say and do not believe.

Oh and my position on the Iraq war, since you still haven't grasped it, is that the invasion was, all things considered, the wrong course of action, but given that the invasion did happen I am as delighted as you and Lindsay that our side won. I have nothing but admiration and respect for the men who fought and died in that war, and I would say the same of soldiers fighting for us in any other moral war, regardless of whether I thought it the best course of action.

Got it?

MH

DDD Jr (aka MH),

I hate these "tit for tat" type of arguments - but as I personally know you - I may as well persevere with my point. You challenged me to dig some examples up. Well, let us illustrate how your argument has changed over the last few months.

Last March you wrote:

“Its more a question of 5 decades of immoral statist foreign policy leading to (not causing) terrorism and a whole raft of other problems as well. For instance a number of dictators (including Saddam) were propped up by the US at various times because they were seen as being allies against a greater threat. One aspect of the case against invasion is that the occupation of Iraq now is effectively a continuation of that foreign policy, a foreign policy which Rand condemned and which Objectivist now ought to be working to dismantle.”

Yesterday you wrote:

“I have nothing but admiration and respect for the men who fought and died in that war, and I would say the same of soldiers fighting for us in any other moral war, regardless of whether I thought it the best course of action.”

(Moral and Immoral were given italics by me).

Your problem is that you cannot admit that your position has indeed changed!!!!!

So admit it finally!!!!