Looking Back

Often, especially when referring to the Iraq War, many politicians say something along the lines of "Knowing what I know now…" and then make an excuse for voting for the Iraq war or agreeing with it. This is an unacceptable excuse. Knowing what the U.S. knows now, would they still have dropped a nuclear bomb on Nagasaki and Hiroshima? Would they fight in Vietnam? You can't look back on what you did and say, "Knowing what I know now, knowing how it turned out, I wouldn't have done that." That is just a pathetic excuse. Saying, "Thinking back, even only knowing what I knew then, I regret making that decision," makes perfect sense because you're realizing you should have realized then it was a bad decision. Judging people in the past also has to be done carefully. Before judging, think about the time period and what the people thought and believed.

Taken from BBC

The fading of the dream has led to a falling-out among the neo-conservatives themselves.

In particular, two leading neo-conservatives, Richard Perle and Kenneth Adelman, attacked the Bush team in Vanity Fair magazine. Both had been on a Pentagon advisory board. Both had argued for war in Iraq.

In an article called "Neo Culpa", Richard Perle declared that had he known how it would turn out, he would have been against it: "I think now I probably would have said: 'No, let's consider other strategies'."