More on the stab-in-the-back

Josh Marshall has been following the development of the Iraq War stab-in-the-back alibi for years. He weighs in again on the subject after Bush's VFW speech in Militarism and Anti-Democracy, Now in a Country Near You TalkingPointsMemo.com 08/23/07. Marshall is doing what needs to be done to counter that myth, which some Republicans will believe no matter what, which is to point out the bogus claims that go into building the tale. For instance:

Like for instance, all those war critics who think that if only US troops would leave Iraq, all the killing would stop.

Have you met these people? You can find people who think the Earth is flat. Heck, you can even find people who don't believe in evolution. Most of them seem to be running for president as Republicans. But I don't think I know anyone who thinks all would be swell in Iraq if only US troops would leave. Indeed, the premise of most current criticism of the war is that we're occupying a country that is in the midst of a slow-motion civil war and that there's nothing we can do to stop it and that we should stop trying. (my emphasis)

He also links to a couple of other blog posts that criticize the stab-in-the-back talk: The Weimar President by Andrew Sullivan, Daily Dish blog 08/23/07, and, Sub-Standard by Jonathan Chait New Republic Online 08/22/07.

I'm glad that Andrew Sullivan "got religion" on the war and realized what a disaster it is. But he himself was a prominent writer promoting the stab-in-the-back nonsense practically from the time the second plane struck the World Trade Center on 09/11/2001. He doesn't seem to have engaged in much self-reflection about his own role in the stab-in-the-back talk.

Chait includes an odd comment, "There is an old leftist belief that, if soldiers have done horrifying things, then the war is evil." Actually, the notion that the means of the war should be consistent with the ends is a key part of Christian Just War theory, which goes back to that old "leftist" St. Augustine of Hippo (354-450).

Tags: iraq war, stab-in-the-back

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