Playing the Blame Game

As this Washington Times editorial points out, Democrats are offering little in the present Middle East crisis besides a lot of finger-pointing (how unusual - they're trying to exploit a crisis for political gain!).

In fact, on the radio, one can ever hear leftists charging that none of this would have happened if we hadn't gone into Iraq. And the Bush Administration should understand that this meme will grow and spread like a nasty virus unless it does more to make the release of pre-war documents a priority.

The Administration may believe that how we got to war is "water under the bridge" for most Americans -- but that's a fundamental miscalculation. Finis origene pendet (the end depends on the beginning) applies here. If the American people understand that, in truth, Iraq was not a war of choice, they'll see it through 'til the end. If, instead, they're led to believe that it was just a matter of misunderstandings -- however inadvertant or well-intentioned -- it's a much different story. And it becomes easier to see the crises as part of a pattern of mistakes, rather than -- as I believe they are -- a series of "tests" of the West by countries like Iran (whose client, Hezbollah, started bombing just as the UN was about to get around to dealing with its nukes) and North Korea . . . bad actors (like Iraq was) who are, in fact, doing what we've accused them of doing.