ASÍ SE PIERDE UNA GUERRA: Victor Davis Hanson nos explica cómo:

As gas prices rise at home, scream that the war abroad was fought to steal Iraqi oil and get American hands on cheap petroleum. Talk about American imperialism and hegemony while the United States spends billions of dollars to implant democracy in Afghanistan and Iraq. Claim that the United States has destabilized the Middle East as its troops leave Saudi Arabia, Libya gives up its WMD arsenal, Iran suddenly worries about UN inspections, and Pakistan begins to reveal its former Islamic felonies.
Watch columnists and pundits who advocated war, who applauded the three-week toppling of Saddam Hussein, and were convinced that democracy appears with a snap of the fingers suddenly repent, do an about face, and now lament that “they” got us into a messy war.

Insist that Iraq has nothing to do with the wider struggle against Islamic fundamentalists and their autocratic state supporters in the Middle East. Proclaim that there was little Islamic terrorism until our invasion of Iraq. Assume that beheadings are a result of Iraq and that Daniel Pearl was decapitated only after March 2003. Then pretend that the execution of a General Massoud in Afghanistan, the Chechen war, 9-11, the Pakistani murders and bombings, our African embassy bombings, the USS Cole, the first World Trade Center and the ongoing killing in Saudi Arabia simply did not happen until the invasion of Iraq.

Ignore, if not ridicule, any evidence that does not fit a preconceived view: Mohammed Atta could have never met with Iraqi intelligence officers; Abu Abbas and Abu Nidal were not really terrorists and not really in Baghdad; there is no chance that WMD have been transferred to Syria or evidence of its removal or destruction found in Iraq. Power, water, and sewage, as well as oil production, cannot be back at prewar levels.

Leedlo de cabo a rabo: es un verdadero antídoto contra tanta demagogia y falta de perspectiva.

Este es el primer artículo de Hanson al que hago referencia en Barcepundit, pero no será ni mucho, ni muchísimo menos, el último. Y todos son de imprescindible lectura: no sólo por el fondo, sino porque escribe como los ángeles, sin aspavientos pero con una claridad moral absolutamente envidiable.

Nota para impermeables: Hanson es un catedrático de Estudios Clásicos que a pesar de un currículum que quita el hipo lleva una vida bucólica, pasando buena parte de su tiempo en una explotación agrícola familiar situada en el estado de California, donde suele escribir sus artículos. Y sí, también desde hace algo más de dos años y discretamente se ha convertido en uno de los principales asesores de la administración Bush en relación con su especialidad, la historia militar; y lo ha hecho como firme defensor de la necesidad y justicia de ambas guerras, la de Afganistán y la de Iraq, y del imperativo de alcanzar la victoria.

Y lo hace entrando en la Casa Blanca con el carnet de militante del partido Demócrata, en el que milita desde su juventud, en el bolsillo.