From Pine View Farm

Failure 0

Andrew Sullivan (emphasis added):

The attempt to remake the Middle East on our terms and on our own schedule has been revealed in retrospect as pure folly. The core goals of the Iraq war – to disarm Saddam and remove him from power – have been accomplished. Iraq is no longer a potential source of WMDs – just of suicide bombers and terrorists. Saddam is dead. It seems clear to me that the deep trauma of the Saddam years – an unimaginable hell to those of us who have experienced nothing like it – needs time to resolve itself. It may even need a civil war to resolve itself.

(snip)

The moral cost of withdrawal is huge. We should do all we can to provide amnesty for any Iraqis who have been loyal to us. (It does not surprise me that we shamefully haven’t. This is the Bush administration.) But the moral cost of plowing on is also exponential. It may merely delay the day of reckoning. It risks sending young Americans to die in order for a president to save face, not in order to win. The truth is: we have lost this battle, if not the war. I am still inclined to believe such a loss was avoidable. The amazing restraint of the Shia for so long, and the enthusiasm for elections, revealed the potential in Iraq for a breakthrough. But this president threw it away. There is no getting around this, I’m afraid. It is reality. And if we do not get out by June, I fear an even worse one.

But the Conductor sings his song again . . .

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