The right way to do the wrong thing.

Although my own conviction is that that our invasion of Iraq was always a terrible idea, and doomed to failure, one can at least argue that having many more troops available for the occupation and providing employment for young Iraqis early on might have given us a chance for success. Now that Bush is making a stab at doing what he should have done four years ago, I am reminded of the strategy followed in Vietnam after General Creighton Abrams replaced General William Westmoreland, whose bloody search-and-destroy missions had cost the lives of far too many Americans and innocent South Vietnamese. Under Abrams, the number of American casualties was sharply reduced, and we concentrated on killing not innocent civilians but Vietcong and North Vietnamese. If it had made sense for American combat troops to be in Vietnam, Abrams's policy would have been the best policy all along. The trouble is that putting combat troops in Vietnam was a bad idea and could not be redeemed even by the best strategy.