"THEY WERE RIGHT"

Some left-leaning journalists are experiencing second thoughts. Here’s <a href='http://timblair.net/ee/index.php?URL=http://www.suntimes.com/output/brown/cst-nws-brown01.html' target='_blank'>Mark Browne</a> of the Chicago Sun-Times:

Maybe you’re like me and have opposed the Iraq war since before the shooting started—not to the point of joining any peace protests, but at least letting people know where you stood.

You didn’t change your mind when our troops swept quickly into Baghdad or when you saw the rabble that celebrated the toppling of the Saddam Hussein statue, figuring that little had been accomplished and that the tough job still lay ahead.

Despite your misgivings, you didn’t demand the troops be brought home immediately afterward, believing the United States must at least try to finish what it started to avoid even greater bloodshed. And while you cheered Saddam’s capture, you couldn’t help but thinking I-told-you-so in the months that followed as the violence continued to spread and the death toll mounted.

But after watching Sunday’s election in Iraq and seeing the first clear sign that freedom really may mean something to the Iraqi people, you have to be asking yourself: What if it turns out Bush was right, and we were wrong?

It’s hard to swallow, isn’t it?

Browne’s conclusion: “If it turns out Bush was right all along, this is going to require some serious penance. Maybe I’d have to vote Republican in 2008.