History making in Iraq

Can we look back on yesterday's election in a decade or two and draw conclusions from it?  Was it a culmination of a successful operation, or merely another false hope?

The problem with history is that we can never know what might have been had we not invaded. Maybe Iraq would have reformed and joined the family of nations. Maybe had we done nothing the middle east would have ignited into war with each other, choking off oil and driving the world into a depression. Maybe the war will have changed nothing, and we will have whatever, good or bad, that was going to occur.

Maybe defeating Hitler gave rise to monolithic communism and was a greater threat that lasted longer than the 3d Reich would have. Maybe if we had not fought in Vietnam, South Korea and Japan would have fallen to the Red Menace.  But we will never know what might have been. At best we think we know what was.

I think the best we can hope for is that we tried to do what was right and based our decisions on reasonable hypothesis for what might occur.