On the balance, I support the war on Iraq. Four months back I didn’t. Now I do. No I haven’t changed my mind.

I am ambivalent about whether it was a good idea to start the whole thing. The reason I was ambivalent was that I wasn’t sure whether the Americans have the will to complete the job required of them. But now that they have started, it would be disastrous to back off.

I haven’t yet explained why I think the war is justified. I have sniped at those who oppose the war, which is not quite the same thing as actually giving reasons why the war is justifed.

The first problem with giving a justification is that the answer crucially depends on the question being asked. “Is it morally right to depose Saddam Hussain?” will not necessarily give the same answer as “Is it a good idea to do so?”. Similarly the answer to “Is it good for India in the short term?” will be different from “Is it good for India in the long term?” Even if the answer to the previous two questions is “yes”, it still does not mean that the answer will be “yes” for “Should India actually support the war?”

The second problem is that the justification involves a rather detailed reasoning, which is difficult to do so in a blog format.

So I’ve decided to make a multi-part blogathon on the whole Iraq war question.
Watch out for Part II