Out

I have to admit I basically agree with Max. The "we broke it we bought it" crowd assumes that somehow if we just stick it out things will get better. Whether we're concerned about our national interests or the interests of Iraqis, I just don't see how staying furthers either of those.

The truth is, this position isn't any different than that of the Democratic candidates or the Bush administration's official position. They simply have higher hopes about what can be accomplished, but unless we plan to make Iraq an American colony the position of just about everybody is "let's get out as soon as we can." The Max view is that there's nothing much to be accomplished by staying, and I tend to agree. We may be wrong, but the view that we just have to try and make things better presupposes that there's much we can do.


...Josh Marshall says:

But first there's got to be some accountability, a threshold recognition that the people who navigated us into this mess aren't the best suited to help us find our way out of it.

He's right, but we already had one round of this. Remember, these were the people who backed Saddam in the first place. Jolly old pals, remember? In the warped universe of Christopher Hitchens, for some reason this meant that these idiots had a moral obligation to right a wrong. They do have a moral obligation - to step aside and let somebody competent take over.