I admit it

I caused all the evils in the world by swearing at Megan for having supported the war and physical abuse of those who opposed it. If I hadn't said "fuck you", Megan might not have agreed with causing the pointless deaths of hundreds of thousands. My bad.
But, before we get my responsibility for Megan's mistakes, let's see what she has to say of her errors on the war.

1) I lost my normal scepticism about the government's ability to make things better. This is not a "I trusted Bush too much"; perhaps the Bush administration is really the reason that everything went wrong, but I am not in a position to evaluate that. I simply forgot to be skeptical that we could build a functioning nation in Iraq.

"... not in a position". Why not? Does The Atlantic not pay well enough to tackle controversial issues like the relative competency of the Bush Admin?
Also, the primary mistake was not supporting an action which has led to nothing but loss of life and money based on faulty premises which were demonstrably false at the time, it was believing in big gubbermint. Yep, lesson learned.
She continues

2) I paid too little attention to how the Iraqis would feel.

M. covered this well, but I gotta add that this not an error so much as concrete proof of Megan's abject stupidity. She forgot to consider that people might not like being invaded by a country dominated by a rival religion whose intentions are probably more related to the invaded nation's massive oil reserves than any altruistic concern for the actual welfare of its citizens. Oops. She forgot to get milk, too. Next?

3) I overestimated my ability to interpret Saddam's behavior. I genuinely believed that he had WMD--the main reason I favored invasion--because he was acting exactly like I would if I'd had WMD.

I.... my brain hurts.

4) I forgot that institutions matter. The experience of Eastern Europe after the fall of the Iron Curtain revolutionized our thinking about markets. We used to think that they were the natural occupant of any space left free by the government. Now it turns out that they are supported by a dense network of custom and law that is largely invisible to us for the same reason that you can't tell someone how to ride a bike.

What?
How to ride a bike. 1. Sit on it. 2. kick the kickstand up. 3. place your feet on the pedals. 4. maintain your balance. (Steps 2-4 need to be performed in rapid succession.) 5. pump your legs to move the pedals. 6. move forward. 7. steer. I guess I'm special.

5) I failed to consider who would come after Saddam.

Because you are clinically retarded.

6) I paid too much attention to the French. While in general, "Whatever France is doing, don't do that" is very good policy advice, it is not actually true that everything the French oppose is therefore a good idea.

Well, at least you were wrong because you carefully considered a critical topic based on mature, rational, well-informed premises.

7) I fell prey to the notion that we had to do something about Islamic terrorism. This was something. In retrospect, there were many better somethings to do. For example, we could have invaded France.

My response.

I'll be back with a second post before I go to bed tonight, but breaktime. We come next to her monumental piece, a new companion to "Letter from a Birmingham Jail", "Note to opponents of the war".