Will muckraker Seymour Hersh take back his suggestion that the United States was lying about the war, as he lamented that for those of us who "went through the Vietnam War, it's sort of terrifying to think it's starting already"?

Will left-wing journalist Eric Alterman apologize for asking, are Bush officials "really so ignorant of history as to believe the Iraqis would welcome us as 'their hoped-for liberators'?"

Or author Robert Wright for prognosticating, "As more civilians die and more Iraqis see their 'resistance' hailed across the Arab world as a watershed in the struggle against Western imperialism, the traditionally despised Saddam could gain appreciable support among his people"?

Or celebrity intellectual Edward Said for writing, "The idea that Iraq's population would have welcomed American forces entering the country after a terrifying aerial bombardment was always utterly implausible"?

Will actress Janeane Garofalo take out a new TV ad, correcting the impression left by her old TV ad, in which she noted, ominously, "If we invade Iraq, there's a United Nations estimate that says there will be up to a half a million people killed or wounded"?

I suspect the collective answer is, "Uh, no." As time erases the memory of their words, the naysayers will simply be willfully pessimistic about the next U.S. intervention. They will always predict "another Bay of Pigs," never "another Iraq."