Her being wrong diverted the war from chasing Bin Laden to chasing resurgents in Fallujah. Because of her mistaken expertise, more than 800 brave men and women are on her mistaken conscience. All she can say, after all that she missed, is that Saddam is gone. So are hudreds of American lives -- those who were alive last year and those who will forever bear scars and live like invalids. She, on the other hand, will enjoy her royalties and a comfortable retirement.
I do get tired of this arguement. Bush had (has) a number of dominoes to knock over. Bin Laddin was bogged down in the mountains, his position unknown and most of Afghanistan under control. How could Iraq be a diversion, it was one of the countries who came next. Bush made a choice here, to let Iran and Syria for example wait their turn. But he did not "divert" us in our efforts, that is just BS.
Furthermore, your appeal to the lives lost is hypoctical. Lives will be lost in the battle where ever the battle is taken. It is not known yet whether Bush's approach was a life saver or a life loser. Given the other options that could be followed: Do nothing, go into Iran, go into Syria, go into Iraq, go into Saudi Arabia, ... I submit that doing nothing would not be the life saver that the peace movement believes, so that leaves one to ask which of the countries could we have gone into and lost fewer lives? You get to this arguement after you accept that there is a rising radical element in Islam which must be met by force. If you don't believe this, you are the one mistaken.
I don't concede anything but the possibility of her being wrong, which is much lower than the possibility that Bergen is wrong. If this is all he's got, he doesn't have much.
"Her being wrong diverted the war from chasing Bin Laden to chasing resurgents in Fallujah."
I am also tired of this bs,as someone has already said.
I'll go a bit further,though.There has been so much of this type of comment,rationalization,preaching,begging,pi$$ing,moaning--all essentially in support of Saddam Hussein and the Bathist former government of Iraq.
We may have to wait for the writers of history many years from now to uncover the reason for Saddam's widespread support in the world.Perhaps we should begin with the utter lack of money going to Palestinian terrorist murderers since Iraq was defeatd?