When George Bush decided to invade and occupy Iraq with only Britain as a major ally, he went against the earlier best judgments of most people with any experience in the region, including that of his own father during his own time of war against Iraq.
The grand vision of a pacified, democratized Iraq, with vast oil reserves enabling it to pay its own way and shine the light for the rest of the region, must have seemed quickly achievable. Clearly, it did to Mr. Rumsfeld, Vice President Dick Cheney, and Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz - the architects of this adventure.
But they were wrong. And every day of every week, more Americans are being maimed and killed because of their wrongness.
Lately, the fear has shifted from whether America would stay too long in Iraq to whether it would leave too soon, especially with the White House eye on next November.
Even the most committed opponents of the invasion recognize that leaving too soon would add another wrong to the first wrong. Rumsfeld was right to ask for help from abroad. Every member of this administration should ask for help, from every quarter, to help stabilize Iraq, even if it means Washington doesn't have full control.
And come next November, Americans should remember this November - and who took us on this ill-fated, deadly adventure.
But enough about Iraq. Today's headlines aren't about Tikrit. They're focused on Michael Jackson.
Before we Americans can "remember" this ill-fated, deadly adventure, we need to get even an approximate understanding of what's actually going on — something closer to that of the average bystander in Trafalgar Square. And that requires a media willing to tell the truth, and an audience willing to hear it. I'm fairly certain we have neither.
The author of the above excerpt is G. Jefferson Price III, The Baltimore Sun's Perspective editor. He was that newspaper's Middle East correspondent in the 1970s and '80s.
