Andrew Sullivan, one year ago today:

THE COMING SPIN: You can see it now. Chaos. Looting. Disorder. Losing the peace. It's not that there won't be some truth to these stories; and real cause for concern. The pent-up fury, frustration and sheer anger of three decades is a powerful thing, probably impossible to stop immediately without too much force. And the last thing we want is fire-power directed toward the celebrating masses. The trouble is that they could become the narrative of the story, especially among the usual media suspects, and erode the impact and power of April 9.

By "April 9" he meant, of course, the fall of Baghdad and the famous toppling of the Saddam statue. He was morally certain that that downed statue would be the indelible symbol of a victory secured, as long as we damn liberals didn't use our filthy propaganda techniques to spoil the triumph.