Monday, October 04, 2004

Sometimes, acting on bad intelligence has good results

In this case, it led to a closer working relationship with Sudan, and more viable options in fighting terror.

One of the arguments I've read against the war in Iraq is that "not enough emphasis" was placed on humanitarian reasons, or any reasons besides WMD. Aside from sounding like "too many notes", it implies that in the opinion of those who are complaining, a good result never justifies a course of action taken for "the wrong" reason.

It's as if someone working on a drug to treat athlete's foot accidentally finds a cure for cancer or AIDS. By this reasoning, the discoverer deserves to be fired because he didn't come up with a treatment for athlete's foot.

No comments: