It is said that “History is written by the victors.”

Is that true any longer? A few years from now, when Iraq’s oil industry is humming along, it’s status as an intellectual leader of the Arab world being restored to pre-Sadam glory, it’s people no longer living in daily fear, will the whole debacle still be viewed by the chattering classes as a quagmire and another American humiliation? I think we know the answer.

Iraq will still have corruption and some banditry a few years from now, and it’s main ethnic and tribal groups will be squabbling, especially in what will be a circus of a legislature. Sour leftist and paleo-conservatives will focus on those negatives as “proof” that Iraq was a waste of our time, despite out own penchant for earmarks for bridges to nowhere, organized crime cartels, and “no-go” housing projects. They wouldn’t recognize a thriving-if-flawed society if they tripped over it.