Iraq, three years on: Mea culpa, anyone? Looking back on the rationale (or lackthereof) that led to war
By Scott Piatkowski
As the third anniversary of the start of the Iraq War passes (heck,
we’re already approaching the third anniversary of when it was
supposed TO END), I thought it might be instructive to revisit
some of the more interesting things that were said back in the
first half of 2003.
I was fortunate to find in my Inbox an email from Fairness
and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), which provided a series of
bold––and wrong––predictions made by a number of American
pundits (the full list is much longer than the samples I’ve
provided). The other quotes––the Canadian ones––listed below are
some that I’ve been saving for just such an occasion.
Without further ado, here are my nominees for the 2006 Mea
Culpa Awards. Feel free to pick your own “winner”:
“I will bet you the best dinner in the gaslight district of San
Diego that military action will not last more than a week. Are you
willing to take that wager?” –Bill O'Reilly, Fox News, January 29,
2003
“Mr. Chairman, I fear the former leader of the official
opposition [Stockwell Day, who had just spoken] may have had a
peek at my speech.... Should the United Nations fail to accept its
responsibility and enforce its resolutions, I believe that this
country working with our traditional allies, the United States,
Great Britain, Australia and others, should, indeed must, keep its
options open in terms of participating in a coalition of
like–minded countries to disarm the regime.”–Former Liberal MP
David Pratt (Paul Martin’s first choice for Defence Minister),
Defence Committee, January 29, 2003
“It won't take weeks. You know that, professor. Our military
machine will crush Iraq in a matter of days and there's no
question that it will… There's no way. There's absolutely no way.
They may bomb for a matter of weeks; try to soften them up as
they did in Afghanistan. But once the United States and Britain
As the third anniversary of the start of the Iraq War passes (heck, 
