Frusturated with the Left

Both rightists and leftists in the U.S. are guilty of deciding that they are a rightist or a leftist and then determining their views on issues from there, regardless of facts and changing circumstances. But it is those on the left who are guilty of this that I currently want to address.

I am immensely bothered by the fact that many on the left seem incapable of agreeing with anything George W. Bush believes or admitting that any policy of George W. Bush has had positive consequences. The current attitude of the left, especially the far left, towards the Iraq war is easily the largest of my concerns. There were good reasons for initially being against the war and there are very important reasons for being disturbed (to say the least) by the way the Bush administration has conducted the war. But in light of recent events, it seems simply irresponsible to me to not at least consider the possibility that the war may be worth it in the long run (if not the short run as well). . .
The first and most obvious point to be made is that a murderous dictator has been removed from power. While it is true that Iraqi citizens may still be being killed in large numbers, one can safely assume that this number will fall and remain at a level significantly lower than the number that were being killed under Saddam Hussein. Like many on the left, I am not particularly confident that a dictator will not again come to power. But I am very much confident that whoever comes to power will be worlds better than Saddam Hussein.
The second and related point to be made is that the recent elections were a remarkable success and demonstrated that the Iraqi people were not happy under Saddman Hussein.
Third, the Iraq war seems to be having a positive ripple effect over the rest of the region. Libya recently decided to give up their pursual of weapons of mass destruction. There is a movement in Lebanon to kick out the oppressive Syrian influence (although a more recent pro-Syrian demonstration calls into question how serious the country's citizens are about freedom). And just today, Muslim clerics in Spain issued a fatweh against Osama Bin Laden.
In the light of these events, the fact that so few on the left, especially the far left, are willing to say that the war was a good thing is startling to me. I also find it remarkable that the same people who defended John Kerry's "flip-flopping" (as they should have), feel compelled to remain so stubbornly consistent in their hatred of every Bush administration policy.

In the past, I considered my self rather committed to the left. I no longer am. It is not that my views have changed that much (although they have in some ways), it's that the views of leftists seem to have changed. On the domestic front, the ideals remain largely the same, and I largely continue to hold left-wing views on domestic issues. But on foreign policy, leftists seem to have made a shift from being Wilsonian internationalists committed to spreading freedom throughout the world, to pessimists who embrace a sort of isolationism. While I don't see myself becoming a right-winger any time soon, if leftists continue to facilitate that shift, you can count me out of their ranks.