Interesting link in Cole’s update, too:

http://highclearing.com/index.php/archiv…

…(who is, unfortunately, computerless whereever she is) last post from Friday…

http://sideshow.me.uk/smar08.htm#0321234…

…where she linked to Cole’s admission, there is, presumably, a troll named Bob. I say presumably because, from the tenor of his comments…

“I read John Cole’s post. Fuck John Cole for all the reasons stated above. Fuck his mea culpa. He and his friends got us here. NOW he’s sorry. Fuck John Cole.”

…I’m not really sure. I mean, nominally, he’s on “our” side, right? but I admit to not really knowing whether this comment is indicative of his other comments or not. so, maybe troll, maybe not. (I realize as I type this how much I really hate blog-shorthand like “troll”, anyway.)

regardless, I’m going to assume that his attitude is probably shared by not a few others. this, if we are EVER to heal this tattered nation, is going to be a major problem. forgiveness and understanding will be more than essential.

and (sigh) then again, I find myself having a hard time thinking that I myself will ever be able to forgive or understand stuff like “Instapunk” posted (and Instapundit linked to), highlighted at Glenn’s place:

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2…

…oy. oy oy oy.

Cole’s mea culpa was so unequivocal that one, I think, is compelled to forgive, if not forget.

The comments of Insta* are of the sort that would make that awfully difficult, even if an earnest mea maxima culpa were forthcoming.

It’s a great mea culpa, but a lot of conservatives (Bruce Fein) got off the bus a lot earlier.

[x] Any (D) in the general. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.

I would feel more, what, forgiving? No, who am I to forgive? I would give Cole more credit if he started something like Media Matters. It is five years since the war started after all. He seems to be commenting in response to all these excuses the other war supporters have been making for themselves.

I saw Sullivan a couple of years ago and he was mostly on the incompetence kick. He was also unwilling to give any credit to anti war people for having been right. And he said “Thank God for John McCain” in this particular discussion. Joe Klein had put it together and it included Kenneth Pollack, Noah Feldman and one other war supporter whose name escapes me. Only Feldman seemed genuinely to realize he had been wrong about things. He challenged Sullivan on his McCain comment pointing out that McCain’s anti-torture bill had been approved by the White House before going for a vote.

I commented somewhere else, I think, that I see Cole and these others like junkies or alcoholics. They are inherently untrustworthy. It is almost a given that they will backslide at some point. You have to keep an eye on them. Admitting that you have a problem is only the beginning of recovery.

So now what?

… virtually no one else will do, and that’s to admit that he should have listened to the DFHs.

That acknowledgment is so rare as to, IMHO, deserve recognition. Now, I don’t know shit about Cole and whether there’s enough of a track record that one should remain on high-skeptic alert, but I do appreciate the unusual totality of this apology.

…and many conservatives (John Dean, I think, for one) never got on to begin with.

but what becomes increasingly important to me is that they simply get off the bus, regardless of when they do. it’s gonna be a long, hard struggle to get back to an America we recognize.

I even hope (much maligned word, I know) for a day when even Hannity’s idiot listeners happen upon, say, a testimony from Winter Soldier, or a photograph of a maimed Iraqi child, and they break down and begin the long walk home.

this country, as it is, so intensely divided, will never recover unless Truth becomes paramount and effectively disseminated. but I’m still glad when even a PajamasMedia-type like Cole begins recovery, and can, possibly, begin to lead some of the rest of them home.

(and thanks, VL.)

Giving Sullivan, Cole et al credit for reaching step 7 (“Step 1: We admitted we were powerless over Iraq, that our lives had become unmanageable”) there are some steps yet to come:

8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.

9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

TROLL PROPHYLACTIC We’ve had the Hillary v. Obama dicussion, and no doubt will have it again, but this isn’t the thread for it. Naturally, of course, being both racist and old, I support the war completely and wish it to continue, which is why I can’t vote for Obama.

[x] Any (D) in the general. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.

That’s what we need, Anna. Excellent idea to focus on truth. I mean, I’m into settling scores to get these assholes off the teebee and the Op-Ed pages — though who knows why, after the blogosphere cleared a space for the A-listers, and look what happened * — but the country needs truth too. The Unitary Exective will not survive if what it did is opened up.

NOTE * Although Lord Eschaton has kept his sanity, thank Dog.

[x] Any (D) in the general. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.

How come I don’t see bloggers attacking Chris Dodd for his?

“I was wrong about the Doctrine of Pre-emptive warfare.”
-John Cole

This is one of my biggest pet peeves. What we did was not “pre-emptive warfare,” it was “preventive warfare.”

An example of pre-emptive warfare would have been to see the Japanese bombers flying to Pearl Harbor and shoot them down out of the sky before they got there.

An example of preventive warfare is what we did in Iraq. Murdered hundreds of thousands because someday, maybe, that country might be a threat of unknown magnitude.

This is one of those framing battles that Progressives/Liberals are bound to lose. The Neo-Cons are going to brand all of their foreign policy adventures as “pre-emptive warfare,” and John Q Public is going to eat it up. If John Q Public is never made aware of the differences between pre-emptive and preventive war, then this country, and it’s potential targets, are fucked.

Submitted by Susie from Philly on Sun, 2008-03-23 13:35.

How come I don’t see bloggers attacking Chris Dodd for his?

Chris Dodd has apologized for his vote.

http://www.politico.com/pdf/070205_iraqv…

Ok, I also think of these war repenters as like illegal immigrants. They should get in line with people who have been here for 5 or 6 years. But I will give him credit for this.

Like me. It had nothing to do with Burke, and everything to do with what the party had become. A bunch of bedwetting, loudmouth, corrupt, hypocritical, and incompetent boobs with a mean streak a mile long and no sense of fair play or proportion.

Go here, then come right back.