The mind-numbing stupidity of Bill Kristol.

As Bush prepares to ignore all common sense opinion and send a further 30,000 troops into Iraq to appease the opinions of people like Bill Kristol, Anonymous Liberal has an article at Glenn Greenwald's site quoting Kristol before the Iraq war. It makes simply staggering reading now because of how arrogant, smug and totally wrong his presumptions have turned out to be.

That Bush could be prepared to listen again to someone who was so spectacularly wrong defies belief. It certainly defies common sense. Here are Kristol's own words:

We are tempted to comment, in these last days before the war, on the U.N., and the French, and the Democrats. But the war itself will clarify who was right and who was wrong about weapons of mass destruction. It will reveal the aspirations of the people of Iraq, and expose the truth about Saddam's regime. It will produce whatever effects it will produce on neighboring countries and on the broader war on terror. We would note now that even the threat of war against Saddam seems to be encouraging stirrings toward political reform in Iran and Saudi Arabia, and a measure of cooperation in the war against al Qaeda from other governments in the region. It turns out it really is better to be respected and feared than to be thought to share, with exquisite sensitivity, other people's pain. History and reality are about to weigh in, and we are inclined simply to let them render their verdicts.

Of course, now that both history and reality have weighed in and proved Kristol to be wrong to a shocking degree, has he offered any apology? Has he stopped pontificating?

Oh, no. Now, apart from wanting an additional 30,000 troops to be sent to Iraq, he also proposes that the US should take action against Iran.

The Baker Report was a polite attempt at intervention, a way of saying "enough is enough". As Bush prepares to give lunatics like Kristol exactly what they want and increase the troop levels in Iraq, another type of intervention is required.

Impeachment, anyone?

Read the Glenn Greenwald article by clicking on the title of this article.

tag: Bush, Iraq, Iraq war, "Stay the course", Bill Kristol