Getting the war criminals back together

Elisabeth Bumiller checks in with some of the architects of what is (so far) the worst foreign policy blunder of the 21st century and hoo boy:

One person who sees little similarity between the run up to Iraq and now is David H. Petraeus, the general who commanded American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan and led the 101st Airborne Division in the initial invasion in Baghdad. “This is clearly the potential run up to military action, but it’s not the invasion of a country,” he said on Wednesday.

Mr. Trump, he said, should deliver an ultimatum to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran, and order him to agree to the complete dismantlement of his nuclear program or face “the complete destruction of your country and your regime and your people.” If the supreme leader rejects the ultimatum, Mr. Petraeus said, “that improves our legitimacy and then reluctantly we blow them to smithereens.”

I am inclined to agree that ceteris paribus that it would be better than Iran not develop a nuclear weapon. The idea that the possibility that they might would justify an at least quasi-genocidal military attack — and that this would be perceived as “legitimate” internationally! — is absolutely 150 proof deranged. The media treated this guy as some kind of sage for years! If he can not only think stuff like this but tell prominent reporters about it, it’s terrifying to think what Donald Trump might do.

In related news, I wonder how many “Donald Trump is betraying the Donald Trump who existed solely in my imagination again” pieces are going to come out before this is over:

One bold experiment the nation’s editors could try out would be to publish more people who were actually right about Trump when it mattered.