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The Weblog at The View from the Core - Thu. 11/17/05 07:07:17 AM
   
   

"Strategic overview: Annotating and updating Den Beste"

By TigerHawk at TigerHawk:

More than two years ago, blogging great Steven Den Beste (now (perhaps) returned from retirement!) published a widely-linked "strategic overview" of the war on Islamic fascism, including (in Den Beste's conception) the invasion of Iraq. Den Beste's strategic overview was an extremely useful outline of the strategic issues identified by supporters of the Bush administration's policies, and it has in many respects stood the test of time. It runs more than twenty pages, but even at that length you are unlikely to read a more concise summary of America's strategic challenge circa 2003.
However, a lot has happened since the spring of 2003. Whatever might be said about the success of the war in Iraq compared to the standard of history, it has been at best a qualified success — and many opponents of the war call it an unqualified failure, or worse — compared to the standard set by its most optimistic advocates in early 2003. So where do we stand? Now that Den Beste has returned to blogging, perhaps he will be updating his own overview. However, since I thought my own thinking would benefit from the exercise, it is with great humility that I undertake to annotate and update Den Beste myself. The object of this post, then, is to organize my thinking about the war in light of what we knew then and what we now know. You guys are along for the ride. Do not expect spit and polish, but do not hesitate to dispatch your (constructive) arguments, additions and subtractions into the comments. In all likelihood, I will update this outline in the future, or use it as the basis for other work.
I have reproduced Den Beste's original post with the original links in italics below, with my additions, deletions and corrections in regular text or reflected as such in Den Beste's. Please excuse my formatting, which tends to be as aesthetically displeasing as everything else about this blog....

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Thu. 11/17/05 07:07:17 AM
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