Iraq invasion: Greatest strategic decision?

Yes indeed, I too almost fell out of my chair when I saw this reported in by Al Kamen in the WaPo:

The Loop Quote of the Week — maybe of the 21st century — comes from Stephen Cambone, who was undersecretary of defense for intelligence under Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

Speaking at the Aspen Security Forum over the weekend, Cambone told a panel that the decision to invade Iraq was: “one of the great strategic decisions of the first half of the 21st century, if it proves not to be the greatest.” [my emphasis]

Brookings Institution fellow Noah Shachtman, who was the panel moderator, wrote on his blog for Wired magazine that Cambone’s observation, and his analysis that the invasion paved the way for theArab Spring sweeping the region, “surprised” folks at the conference. No doubt.

Un-be-liev-able.  And doesn't it make you wonder how often Cambone and his cronies get together over whiskey/cigars/whatever, reminisce about their power days of (as one of them put it) creating new realities that the rest of us would be left to write about . . . and grumble that the country will someday wake up and realize how they ensured American greatness (or some such).