You don’t get that many measurable historical moments in your life, but you must recognize them when they come. This was one of those moments and the left collectively decided to get it wrong and I realized at that moment that, to borrow a slogan that slightly irritates me, but is useful: "Not in my name.” I'm not part of that family. I wanted to force a split, a political split on the left to which a small extent I think succeeded. Today, there is a small pro-regime change left and I'm a proud part of it.

. . . . If you asked someone who has the principles of a 1968 leftist the following question: what is your attitude to a regime that has committed genocide, invaded its neighbors, militarized its society into a police state, that has privatized its economy so it is owned by one family, that has defied the non proliferation treaty in many ways, that sought weapons to commit genocide again and cheated on inspections, that has abolished the existence of a neighboring arab muslim state? . . . I would be appalled if anyone knew me even slightly would not guess my attitude. Iraq should have been taken care of a long time ago. Instead, when I made my view public, I was berated by the left and my view was seen as an insane eccentricity.

I should also note that I have friends and comrades in the Iraqi and Kurdish left going back at least till the early 1990s. For me, supporting the war was an elementary duty of solidarity. I said: I'm on your side and I’ll stay there until you’re in and they’re out.

A post tellingly titled "I'm Alright, Jack" at Harry's Place reiterates the by-now-well-worn-but-true charge that the Left is now the isolationist Right:

. . . while willing to talk tough about the terrorists an isolationist could still take an oppositional stance today by arguing that we have brought such troubles on ourselves by our meddling ways in the world – by an ‘unnecessary war’, by opening a ‘Pandora’s Box’, by not leaving well alone and through our arrogance in assuming that Iraqis, Afghans and Arabs deserve the same rights as the rest of us.

Hold on a minute – don’t these arguments sound familiar?

This is the curious thing about the past few years – a large part of the anti-war left has effectively substituted for the isolationist right. People who would proudly describe themselves as ‘internationalists’ have found themselves muttering about meddling and puffing indignantly about the rights of ‘sovereign states’.

. . . So when my critical friend asked as to why on this blog we don’t deal with right-wing arguments against the Iraq war and the broader issues perhaps I should have replied: “But we do”.

UPDATE: More from Oliver Kamm.