Reflecting on the apologetic Iraq War retrospectives many writers have published in recent days, Freddie deBoer observes that “one of the most obvious and salient aspects of the run up to the war” is being ignored: “the incredible power of personal resentment against antiwar people, or what antiwar people were perceived to be.” As he remembers it, “the visceral hatred of those opposing the war, and particularly the activists, was impossible to miss. It wasn’t opposition. It wasn’t disagreement. It was pure, irrational hatred, frequently devolving into accusations of antiwar activists being effectively part of the enemy.” Now, he says, it is all but forgotten.

Is he exaggerating?

Judge for yourself. And may the quotes I’ve assembled serve as a caution: All this is what was said about the people who protested a war that a majority of Americans now regard as a tragic mistake, that began on false pretenses, and that proved far more costly than any advocates anticipated. Keep in mind as you read that tens of millions of people in dozens of countries protested against the impending invasion of Iraq over a period lasting several years. To be sure, some behaved in ways that justified criticism. But none could discredit the cause generally, and any reductive description of “what anti-war protesters are like” is self-evidently nonsense. […]

Doves are held up to ridicule, their patriotism disparaged, their allegiances questioned, their aesthetics mocked, and their position attacked from every rationally irrelevant angle imaginable. Humans do it again and again, even though it always seems discrediting in hindsight. Says deBoer, “I think people don’t want to admit that hatred of the left-wing was part of their problem in 2002 and 2003 because they still hate the left, and recognizing the irrationality of their earlier hatred would compel them to think over their current hatred.” He is right.

Conor Friedersdorf in the Atlantic.