Over the coming period I shall be putting up a series of posts about the Iraq war, arguing once more why it was right to support that war. I don't know how many posts it will be or over how long a period exactly, but in any case this post is by way of introductory explanation.
I've been meaning for a while now to write a longish piece in which I could deal with counter-arguments to the view that we on the pro-war left have taken, or merely considerations that have occurred to me but which I've not previously written about. It would also give me the opportunity to respond to specific points that have been made by other bloggers in response to posts of mine and which I've had marked down for a reply but not yet got around to. (For an earlier expression of this intention, see here.)
Two related reasons now make the series timely. First, the evident and mounting difficulties for the project of liberation and democratization in Iraq inevitably prompt, for anyone who supported that project (as I did and still do), a reconsideration of his or her reasons for supporting it and the reasons that have been put forward to counter these. Second, in case any of us who supported the war may have overlooked the problems now facing the Coalition, there have come voices from amongst those who opposed the war calling us out - with a 'Where are they now?' or some version of 'So what have you got to say for yourself?' Though I don't feel especially compelled by these questions in that distasteful form, it just happens that in meeting my own sense of obligation to reconsider my reasons - including in response to civil debate and criticism - I shall give them an answer: a here (is where I am), and a this (is what I have to say for myself).
The projected essay has been repeatedly postponed by me just because a long blog essay covering many issues, and of some complexity, needs substantial time; and on any given day I have always had - or at any rate found - reasons why this wasn't the day to start. So I'll write it as a series of discrete but linked posts, more manageable amidst the other demands of life. Note that it's in the nature of this conception that I may sometimes begin, or merely allude to, an argument in one post, but only get to go into it thoroughly later on, in another post.
All posts in the series will be titled as this one is - 'The argument over Iraq #n'. There will continue to be other posts on Iraq that are not part of the series.