The New York Times > Opinion > A Pause for Hindsight: Saddam Hussein was indisputably a violent and vicious tyrant, but an unprovoked attack that antagonized the Muslim world and fractured the international community of peaceful nations was not the solution…. Saddam Hussein and his rotting army were not a threat even to the region, never mind to the United States. Now that we are in Iraq, we must do everything possible to see that the country is stabilized before American forces are withdrawn…. Congress would never have given President Bush a blank check for military action if it had known that there was no real evidence that Iraq was likely to provide aid to terrorists or was capable of inflicting grave damage on our country or our allies…. And even though this page came down against the invasion, we regret now that we didn’t do more to challenge the president’s assumptions.
The New York Times > Opinion > A Pause for Hindsight:
Saddam Hussein was indisputably a violent and vicious tyrant, but an unprovoked attack that antagonized the Muslim world and fractured the international community of peaceful nations was not the solution. There were, and are, equally brutal and potentially more dangerous dictators in power elsewhere. Saddam Hussein and his rotting army were not a threat even to the region, never mind to the United States.
This and the increasing pile of evidence that Iran was the real threat — and the source of the information that led to the coup — makes me wonder how the incumbent regime can survive. But if the toothless media don’t report it, they just might.