In a good place

Dick Cheney says that by the time his administration leaves office, Iraq will be “in a good place”: “self-governing... capable for the most part of defending themselves, a democracy in the heart of the Middle East, a nation that will be a positive force in influencing the world around it in the future.” This sunny, not to say insanely out-of-touch, optimism, is not his most wrong-headed statement about Iraq, which is this: “we’ll have [Iraq] in a good place, where we’ll be able to look back on it and say, ‘That was the right decision. It was a sound decision going into Iraq.’” Even were Iraq to become the paradise on earth he posits, it could not justify the years of brutality and death he inflicted on that country. He is looking for the moment that makes invading Iraq a right decision, a sound decision. That moment cannot exist.