Best Defense
Thomas E. Ricks' daily take on national security.

Tom’s piece vs. Andrew Sullivan’s blog

I am a big fan of Andrew Sullivan, and read his thoughtful blog every day. But I am tempted to give him one of his Von Hoffman-ish awards for his item criticizing me for advocating keeping 35,000 or so troops in Iraq for many years to come. Andrew asks: When will this madness end? Do ...

By , a former contributing editor to Foreign Policy.
CMU International Relations & Politics/flickr
CMU International Relations & Politics/flickr
CMU International Relations & Politics/flickr

I am a big fan of Andrew Sullivan, and read his thoughtful blog every day. But I am tempted to give him one of his Von Hoffman-ish awards for his item criticizing me for advocating keeping 35,000 or so troops in Iraq for many years to come. Andrew asks:

When will this madness end? Do we really have to go completely bankrupt and be forced to withdraw from these anachronistic pretensions? Are seven years not enough?  

Tom responds: Good questions! I wish you had posed them before you supported the invasion, Andrew. The decision to attack Iraq may was one of the biggest blunders in American history, and is going to cost a lot more. This thing is far from over, and I am surprised that you think you can just walk away from it now. You are an interesting moral thinker — how can you justify that?

Thomas E. Ricks is a former contributing editor to Foreign Policy. Twitter: @tomricks1

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