But it didn't...

By Domenico Bettinelli, Jr. ( articles - email ) | Apr 11, 2003

Cardinal Ratzinger gave an interview to an Italian news agency about the war in Iraq. It starts:

"The war could have gone differently. Today's arms can destroy many people, as has already happened", said Cardinal Ratzinger, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith.

Yes, but it didn't go differently. That's kind of the point. All kinds of things can happen, but in the end the White House was right about the efficacy of the plan, the skill of our Armed Forces, and the corruption of the Saddam regime that meant it could not field an effective fighting force.

The only thing left to show is that the WMDs and connections to terrorism are there. It's very early in the process--it will probably take months to unearth what was so carefully hidden from UN inspectors and many of those involved are probably dead--but already the first possible indicators are being found.

Yes, it could have been different, but it wasn't.