A lesson in unintended consequences

Andrew Sullivan, the self-proclaimed "conservative" who agitates for same-sex "marriage," rails against those eeeevil "Christianists," and still nurses a seething hatred against Jesse Helms, once cheered on the invasion of Iraq as a crusade for homosexual liberation.

Ironic, then, that his blog has this entry today:

Since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, the situation for gays and lesbians in Iraq has deteriorated. Ridiculed under Hussein, many now find themselves the targets of violence, according to humanitarian officials. ... When CNN asked Iraqis in Baghdad how they felt about homosexuals, we found intolerance to be widespread. One man said he considers gays no different from "criminals and terrorists." Another claimed that homosexuality was "illegal under Islamic law, and [gays] should be punished by law like criminals."

As Edmund Burke warned, radical change based on abstractions is more likely to end in disaster than utopia. When will we learn?