Actually, if you live four years. A gem from Rich Lowry:
It’s a good lesson in why you should put your faith in principles not in men. It was always weird that so many conservatives stayed so vested in Rumsfeld ‚Äî mostly because they liked his style and he was attacked by the left ‚Äî when the policy he preferred was pretty close to that of Murtha: Begin to scale down, so the Iraqis will have an incentive to help themselves.
Well, as I recall, it was National Review among others that championed re-electing Bush in 2004 and re-electing Republicans in 2006, knowing full well it meant more Rumsfeld. And those of us who called for his ouster were variously slimed and attacked as pro-terror or somehow lily-livered fair-weather war-supporters. And even now, Lowry continues to mouthe the emptiest of phrases:
On the merits, needless to say, I think the Rumsfeld proposals to pull back are folly. Chaotic areas of Iraq need more U.S. forces not less.
From where? How many? 50,000 now? I could go on. Actually, I have gone on and on and on. Because I actually wanted the Iraq experiment to work more than I wanted Republicans to save face. And that’s the difference here: not between men and principles, but between party and principles. Lowry picked party. He’s now living with the consequences. In fact, we all are.
(Photo: Stephen Chernin/Getty.)
The Dish 