A Teachable Moment
by Tim Lee, Sr Administrative Law Judge with the City and County of San Francisco

As parents and teachers, we are always looking to turn mistakes committed by our children and students into teachable moments. We know lessons can be learned from bad experiences if we recognize what led to them and learn from the experience. The bad experience then becomes a teachable moment: an opportunity to learn why something happened and to use this knowledge to avoid the same mistake in the future. It is precisely in this way that we grow as human beings. But we can do so only if we understand what we did wrong. Without such recognition, we learn nothing and are bound to repeat the same mistake again until we do.

It is now abundantly clear that in Iraq, we invaded a country that did not pose an imminent threat to us. If any country other than ours waged such an unjust war, we would have no difficulty saying: "They were wrong. They should lose." Why is it so hard for us to say the same thing about ourselves? Rather than admit our error and learn from it, we continue to maintain that we had the right to invade Iraq and were right in doing so. Like a child who refuses to acknowledge a mistake, we are denied the opportunity to learn from the mistake.

... the war in Iraq presents a valuable opportunity to recognize that the events of 9/11, traumatic as they were, did not change basic morality or the importance of the rule of law. To learn that by acting outside the rule of law, we actually promote lawlessness and insecurity, and become the very evil we claim to be fighting. If defeat in Iraq is the only way for us to learn these truths, it is still a lesson worth learning.

Full story here.