Is the Future going to be Rosy?

Maybe not, according to George Will. In an article today, he talks about how supporters of the current war against Iraq have downplayed the potential difficulties of this war with Iraq. "Now, when the country needs the chastening sobriety that should be conservatism's contribution to the national conversation, it has been getting a whiff of something oxymoronic--conservative triumphalism. There has been much breezy confidence that the war will be painless and the aftermath--replacing Iraq's regime--easy. This has made the public susceptible to mood swings.

Unrealism in the public--the military has shown none of it--about war is an understandable byproduct of the ease of the 100-hour ground war in Kuwait in 1991. And of the Kosovo campaign in which there were no NATO combat deaths. And of the applications of new technologies to the projection of American power. Furthermore, because this is a war of choice--a wise choice, but a choice--those who were eager for the choice to be made had an incentive to minimize expectations of inevitable unpleasantness."

Huh. So Rush Limbaugh saying over and over again that all military concerns were overrated might backfire? Conservatives sold America on a quick and cheap war, and now that it turns out to be expensive and lengthy it might not be as viable a product?. Well, I guess that's the way things go. But wait a second, could overselling of the war have negative consequences down the road?

"Sometimes American conservatism seems to suggest that freedom is defined merely by the absence of things--particularly, bad government measures. The radical inadequacy of that idea will be clear once Saddam Hussein's regime is destroyed. A free society is a complicated social artifact. It is in no small measure an artifact of government, which must create the laws and foster the mores that sustain markets, including a market for political power through a multiparty system.

The president has put the country on a necessary but problematic path favored by conservatives. Now conservatives should explain why conservatism, with its wariness about uncontrollable contingencies and unintended consequences, suggests that the coming triumphs will be more difficult and less complete than we wish."

This article would have been a nice moderating force a couple of weeks ago, but now it's just the beginning of the cop out. Its George Will saying that all that stuff about bringing liberty to the Iraqi people and helping them become a modern society - that's just too hard. So if we kill Saddam Hussein, we should count it a victory, and forget all about the Iraqis.