Iraq Progress Report

Advocates for liberty weigh in after three years

March 17, 2006

As the third anniversary of the invasion of Iraq approaches, Reason asked a wide range of libertarian, conservative, and freedom-minded journalists and academics to assess the war, the occupation, and how their views have or have not changed.

Unifying the insurgency

W. James Antle III

1. Did you support the invasion of Iraq?

I opposed the Iraq war, though regrettably I did hedge in the month before the invasion.

2. Have you changed your position?

Yes—even as an opponent of the war, I was too trusting of the hawks' arguments concerning weapons of mass destruction and Saddam's propensity for anti-American terrorism. My basic views on the inadvisability of democratic nation-building, however, remain unchanged.

3. What should the U.S. do in Iraq now?

The only thing unifying the insurgency is the continued American presence. An orderly withdrawal, while no panacea, would cause the insurgency to divide against itself and allow Iraq's ethno-religious factions to chart their own course.

W. James Antle III is a senior writer for The American Conservative.

Scrap the current constitution

Ronald Bailey

1. Did you support the invasion of Iraq?

Yes.

2. Have you changed your position?