FROM THE WASHINGTON TIMES

HEAD: Confessions of an anti-Iraq War Democrat

By Lanny Davis, a prominent Washington lawyer and a political analyst for
Fox News Channel. In 2007 and 2008, he made multiple appearances on cable TV
in support of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign. From 1996
to 1998, he served as special counsel to President Clinton.

I remember the exact moment I had my first serious doubts about whether I
was 100 percent right that the U.S. pre-emptive invasion of Iraq and the
take-out of Saddam Hussein was a serious mistake.

I had been strongly opposed to the U.S. intervention from the start. I felt
this way even though I believed (as did most everyone, including the
intelligence community) that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction and even
though I thought that he was a murderous, genocidal thug and the world would
be better off - and the U.S. safer - with him dead.

However, I reasoned, the WMD inspectors were back in, and we had Saddam
surrounded - thanks to George Bush, by the way, for which we Democrats did
not give him sufficient credit at the time.

So why risk the uncertainties of a pre-emptive invasion, loss of life and
treasure, and diverting our attention from 9/11 and the war against
terrorism, which most U.S. intelligence indicated had nothing to do with
Saddam?

Of course, all these remain good reasons for opposing starting the war, even
as I look back now.

But ... then came my first moment of doubt.

I saw on TV in early 2005, in their first preliminary democratic elections,
long lines of Iraqis waiting to vote under the hot desert sun with bombs and
shrapnel exploding around them. Waiting to vote!

And then there was that indelible image - an older woman shrouded in a
carpetlike cape, smiling gleefully and holding her purple finger in the air
for the TV cameras, purple with ink showing that she had voted.

Smiling! In the middle of war! At U.S. troops standing nearby! Wow, I
thought. Is it possible I was wrong?

Is it possible, I wondered, that Iraqis truly did want democracy and freedom
and the right to vote and government of the people, just as we Americans do?
And were willing to fight for it, with our help? Wouldn't that be a good
thing? Even a great thing?

Maybe another democracy, however imperfect, other than Israel in the Middle
East could lead to more moderation, possibly other democracies? Democracies
that could serve as bulwarks against al Qaeda-type of terrorist states?

Then in 2005-06 came the increased violence from the Sunni insurgents
against American kids, then the sectarian civil war between Sunnis and
Shi'ites, with young Americans caught in the crossfire. My certainty in
opposing the war and supporting a deadline for getting out re-emerged.

And then in early 2007 came the surge, which so many of us in the antiwar
left of the Democratic Party predicted would be a failure, throwing good men
and women and billions of dollars after futility. We were wrong.

The surge did, in fact, lead to a reduction of violence, confirmed by media
on the ground as well as our military leaders.

It did allow the Shi'ite government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in the
last several months to show leadership by joining, if not leading, the
military effort to clean out of Basra the masked Mahdi Army controlled by
the anti-U.S. Shi'ite extremist cleric Muqtada al-Sadr and from the Sadr
City section of Baghdad he claimed to control.

This willingness by the Shi'ite-dominated al-Maliki government to move
against the Sadr Shi'ite extremists won crucial credibility for the
government among many Sunni leaders and Sunnis on the streets, who joined
together with Shi'ites to turn against the al Qaeda in Iraq and other
Taliban-like extremists.

These are facts, not arguments.

I think there are a lot of antiwar Democrats who, like me, are impressed by
these facts and who now see a moral obligation, after all the carnage and
destruction wrought by our military intervention, not just to pick up and
leave without looking over our shoulders.

Surely we owe the Iraqis who helped us, whose lives are in danger, immediate
immigration rights to the U.S. Yet the shameful fact is that most are still
not even close to having such rights.

Surely we owe the al-Maliki government and the Shi'ite and Sunni soldiers
who put their lives on the line against Shi'ite and Sunni extremists and
terrorists at our behest some continuing presence and support and patience
as they strive to find peace, political reconciliation - and maybe even the
beginnings of a stable democracy.

The only question is, for how long? Forever? No. 100 years? No. But for how
long? I don't know.

I just know I can't get out of my mind that lady with the purple finger held
up, smiling into the camera. If getting in was a mistake, then getting out -
how and when - is not so simple as long as there is hope that she can
someday live in a democratic Iraq that can help America in the war against
terrorism.
*******
Ya think Barack, the Magic Negro's puppeteers will let him even read this?
Bet not!

Dionysus