From an
article in Salon by Walter Shapiro (sub. req.):
Yes, the invasion and occupation of Iraq was a terrible mistake, undertaken by the Bush high command for paranoid reasons and conducted with stunning and willful incompetence.
But, in political terms, there is little to be gained by constantly looking backward to 2003 with a sense of self-righteous vindication. Don Baer, who was Bill Clinton's White House communications director, shrewdly points out, "Saying 'I told you so' is not an action plan."
Yes, but saying, "Saying 'I told you so' is not an action plan." apparently is an action plan for keeping people who were right in 2003 from having any chance to share their opinions now.
In a rational world, someone who had been right might be thought to have more credibility than someone who had been wrong on a question. But the pundits and writers who were completely, catastrophically, screamingly wrong about Bush and Iraq now insist that we forego any discussion of blame. By doing that, they disappear their own small scraps of culpability for the current state of affairs, which allows them to continue to occupy positions of privilege.
Is it important to put blame behind us? In some ways, of course this is true. Blame won't get us out of Iraq. But an accurate assessment of how we got there isn't irrelevant to getting us out, and an accurate assessment of who was right going in isn't irrelevant to figuring out whose advice is worth heeding now.
So when someone tells you we shouldn't play the "blame game," just ignore them. They only want to argue by their rules, because their rules are the only rules that let them win.