Left in Right World

I had a very tough discussion this weekend with a fellow parent. The topic of the Iraq war came up. I said that I had been against the invasion from the beginning and am now even more convinced that it was a mistake. He asked me what I would do now if I was in charge, “how would you get the troops out?” My lack of a good answer on how to get out seemed to reinforce my friend’s opinion that it was the right idea to go in.

I’ve heard this before. This is crazy. It is the equivalent of jumping off of a 10 story building and then, after falling 5 stories, asking for help. Sometimes there is no way to recover from a bad decision. The lack of a better course of action after the boulder has been put in motion does not justify or mitigate the original mistake.

While I agree that we must focus on the best course of action and move forward, to ignore the mistakes that were made will lead us to make more even larger ones.