In what could arguably be called his least upbeat assessment of the ongoing war in Iraq, Vice President Joe Biden expressed hope that there was “at least an even chance” of the Iraqi government stabilizing.

Biden also said it was possible that the 4,439 slain US soldiers and over 32,000 (officially) wounded soldiers might be worth it but “only history will answer that.” As a Senator in 2003, Biden enthusiastically supported the US invasion of Iraq.

But now he says “if we could go back and do it all over again maybe we wouldn’t do it,” and seemed far afield from the Senator and later Presidential candidate that was shrugging off the vast majority of those casualties while they were happening.

Which of course is the problem with time, it is entirely linear, and Vice President Biden can’t “go back and do it all over again” and hope he doesn’t make the same disastrous choice. For the people of Iraq, the hopes of a long-time enthusiast that they still have somewhere around the same odds as a coin toss of coming out of the war with something resembling a stable government will probably be of little comfort.

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