Wednesday, June 30, 2004

From the E-Mailbag...

Bill Mullins writes about my line in this item that William F. Buckley thinks the Iraq war was a colossal mistake...

I think you are putting words in Buckley's mouth. The quote from the NYT: "'With the benefit of minute hindsight, Saddam Hussein wasn't the kind of extra-territorial menace that was assumed by the administration one year ago,' Mr. Buckley said. 'If I knew then what I know now about what kind of situation we would be in, I would have opposed the war.'"

I think the most damaging spin you could put on that is that the administration had or used bad evidence going into the war, or that the war had gone worse than he would have guessed a year ago; not that the war itself was a colossal mistake.

Marshall was using Buckley's statement to buttress his own argument that the war was a mistake. It's not at all clear that Buckley would agree (but it's also not clear that he would disagree).

Mr. Mullins is right. I don't want to spin Buckley's words in any direction. He merely said what he said, and the words "colossal mistake" was an unwarranted extension of them on my part. Thanks for the catch.

• Posted at 1:50 PM · LINK

Spelling Correction

I see that this morning, the Nicholas Kristof column has had a spelling makeover and now says the movie is called Fahrenheit 9/11. By the way, I'm seeing said film this evening and will report any thoughts I have on it later tonight or tomorrow morn.

• Posted at 10:22 AM · LINK