Time to Pay Up!

Jonah Goldberg is a rightwing pundit who writes for the National Review Online. Two years ago he challenged a Prof. of history from the Univ. of Michigan to a bet about Iraq. Basically, not being able to win his argumnet against an expert on the Middle East, he pulled the typical rightwing argument of, "let's just see how history will judge this, because even though things are not great now, they will be worth it in the long run." Unlike most people who have used this, "you just wait and see," argument against me (i.e. "Just wait, they'll find the WMD's, and then you'll see we needed to invade."), his has been documented. He wrote the following 2 yrs. ago yesterday.

"Anyway, I do think my judgment is superior to his when it comes to the big picture. So, I have an idea: Since he doesn't want to debate anything except his own brilliance, let's make a bet. I predict that Iraq won't have a civil war, that it will have a viable constitution, and that a majority of Iraqis and Americans will, in two years time, agree that the war was worth it. I'll bet $1,000 (which I can hardly spare right now). This way neither of us can hide behind clever word play or CV reading. If there's another reasonable wager Cole wants to offer which would measure our judgment, I'm all ears. Money where your mouth is, doc.
One caveat: Because I don't think it's right to bet on such serious matters for personal gain, if I win, I'll donate the money to the USO. He can give it to the al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade or whatever his favorite charity is." The whole piece is here.

Hmmmmmmmm.....Did things turn out as Goldberg pridicted or was the "dashboard saint of lefty Middle East experts" right? Score one for the lefty academic elites! Time to pay up Goldberg.