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Interesting reading

William Swann, posting at Centerfield, has some interesting thoughts on the war in Iraq and the first Presidential debate. An excerpt (italics are from the original post):

The pivot became a key concern in a different way during the first presidential debate last Thursday.

Yes, the president pointed out Kerry's failure to pivot on the $87 billion. But he also essentially denied the right of anyone to pivot. He didn't just say that Kerry didn't pivot, with regards to the $87 billion -- he said you can't ever pivot.

Bush drew the line at a place that makes any sort of opposition to the war at any time a disqualifying factor for becoming commander in chief. Suggesting that the original decision to go to war was wrong means that you cannot now accept the challenge and follow-through with a plan for success.

There is no pivot, the president said. You were either with us from the beginning, or you're unqualified to take over the reigns now and see it through. Either I was right all along, or you're wrong now. Heads I win, tails you lose.

This attitude -- this failure to see any sort of pivot at all -- is what led to a headline in this morning's paper that's likely to strike Ohio voters in an odd sort of way. It says:

Bush Insists WMD Report Still Supports War on Iraq

The administration's position, expressed yesterday, is that the absence of WMDs has nothing to do with whether the original decision to go into Iraq was right. It was their central claim justifying the war, but now it has no relevance to the decision.

The stark illogic is clear to most voters who picked up their papers here in Columbus this morning.

It is, in essence, a refusal to see any sort of pivot. They can't admit we've learned things that would've influenced our decision, had we known them before the war. They can't accept the pivot as a central fact of our war policy -- that the justification for war is fundamentally suspect, but that it doesn't matter now, because we still have to succeed.