Moral Clarity

Via Drum, I see that Jonah Goldberg is arguing that you can’t make an omelet without throwing a few people out of planes, and that the baseline for measuring the quality of a country’s leadership should be Fidel Castro. (This must have been the grading curve his colleague John Podhoretz was using when he called George W. Bush a “great leader.”)

Of course, if one was inclined to be charitable–and when it comes to people who supported this disastrous war for many years, I’m not–it could be pointed out that the current situation in Iraq proves that pretty much any state is better than having no effective state, which is true enough. But consider how much is being conceded here. Evidently, it was never plausible to think that Iraq was magically going to turn into a stable, pro-American democracy after the invasion, which means that the immense cost in lives and resources was going to be expended in a war in which the best-case scenario was a mildly less repressive dictatorship, and the rather more likely scenario was a theocratic quasi- state that would be worse for the Iraqi people and far worse for American interests. But somehow, I don’t think this argument would have flown at the time–and Goldberg, who claimed that “standing-up a stable, democratically inclined government was supposed to be comparatively easy,” certainly wasn’t invoking a claim that the invasion might produce a state marginally better than Castro’s Cuba when it mattered.

…UPDATE: Norbiz reminds us of this Goldberg Komedy Klassic:

Anyway, I do think my judgment is superior to his when it comes to the big picture. So, I have an idea: Since he doesn’t want to debate anything except his own brilliance, let’s make a bet. I predict that Iraq won’t have a civil war, that it will have a viable constitution, and that a majority of Iraqis and Americans will, in two years time, agree that the war was worth it. I’ll bet $1,000 (which I can hardly spare right now). This way neither of us can hide behind clever word play or CV reading. If there’s another reasonable wager Cole wants to offer which would measure our judgment, I’m all ears. Money where your mouth is, doc. One caveat: Because I don’t think it’s right to bet on such serious matters for personal gain, if I win, I’ll donate the money to the USO. He can give it to the al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade or whatever his favorite charity is.

Anytime he wants to make wagers that involve comparing his expertise with that of Juan Cole, I’ll take some of that action…

…see also Steven Taylor.

[Cross-Posted at TAPPED.]