> ...went into the thinking of the political leaders back then.
But if the things you cite don't make logical sense, then those things must not have been actual considerations, or those considerations were made in bad faith.
> But if the things you cite don't make logical sense, then those things must not have been actual considerations, or those considerations were made in bad faith.
First, what some people regard as logical in 2014 didn't necessarily appear to be logical to the relevant decisionmakers in early 2003. Again, hindsight is 20-20.
Second, watch out for the fallacy that there's only one acceptable ranking of values, and that anyone with a different ranking must be either stupid or evil.
I take no position here on the merits of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, only that the level of self-righteous certitude among the people calling for C. Rice's head is faintly nauseating --- if unsurprising; I'm old enough to remember the similar certitude of some of the people who rioted against the Vietnam war.
(My dad used to describe people like that in (quasi) anapaestic tetrameter: "Often mistaken but never in doubt.")
