Out of the Question - Is Bush's biggest mistake too awful to admit?

'I believe that when you know something's going wrong, you make it right,' Kerry said, explaining his vote against the $87 billion appropriation for Iraq. 'That's what I learned in Vietnam. When I came back from that war, I saw that it was wrong. Some people don't like the fact that I stood up to say no, but I did. And that's what I did with that vote.'

No, Senator. That isn't what you did with that vote. You haven't said no to the Iraq War as you did to the Vietnam War. And the reason is that this time, you're running for president.

But the greater shame belongs to the candidate who launched this war, refuses to admit his errors, and now holds the moral pride of his countrymen hostage, blackmailing them into shunning the truth. Tonight he scoffed, 'If I were to ever say, 'This is the wrong war at the wrong time at the wrong place,' the troops would wonder, 'How can I follow this guy?' '

Exactly, Mr. President. If you were ever to give them the correct assessment, they would ask the correct question.

Famously, Bush tells us that 'failure in Iraq is unthinkable'. Saletan seems to have found out why.