I read yet another conservative columnist griping about how the left is “invested” in failure in Iraq. Funny, how conservative veiw the world solely in financial terms. Conservatives claim liberals want failure in Iraq. Wrong.

Conservatives — staunch advocates for personal responsibility — refuse to own up to their own responsibility for liberal mistrust and disbelief. Conservatives are unwilling to recognize that there is good reason for liberals to doubt the “good news” (gospel) out of Iraq.

First, we all know this adminstration has mislead the world on Iraq. Take “mislead” in both the sense of incompetence and lying. If conservatives want to chalk it all up to incompetence, that’s their choice. Having been repeatedly and thoroughly mislead by an administration that is full of marketers, spinners and ideologues, why would anyone believe anything this administration ever says?

Second, this administration and its supporters include many who angrily deny global warming and evolution. They deny science and their own experience and, in the process, heap scorn on others. Why would anyone trust anything they say?

If there is good news out of Iraq, that is truly good news. But that does not offset the lies and mistakes that precede and follow that news. mjh

PS: As the Right repeats this claim, they villainize the Left. (“See how awful liberals really are?”) They also provide a scapegoat for failure. (“We might have won if not for the liberals, the media, etc.”) Personal responsibility? Yeah, Right.