IMO, yes it is .



Last Friday morning, I found myself cornered by a Republican Iraq war vet from the National Guard who sincerely wanted me to understand that when the news media or congressional Democrats talk about drawing down troops, or withdrawing altogether, they are, explicitly, siding with the enemy. "It's either victory or defeat," he said, and if U.S. troops leave Iraq, that means unequivocal defeat.

I pointed out that by that definition of abetting the enemy, noted non-treasonite John McCain, to name the one of many qualifying Republicans I happen to know best, could be culpable, based on his statements and actions regarding Beirut, Somalia and Haiti. The vet let the blow glance off and got back on message: Wartime is not the time to debate the conduct of war. Once we're there, we're in it together, and we need to fight united until we win.

Set aside for the moment whether he's right. The important thing, for the future conduct of U.S. foreign policy, is that his sentiment remains widely held, in numbers large enough to help ensure that no matter what you may hear on the campaign trail between now and November 2008, the U.S. troop deployment in Iraq will likely be an issue in the 2012 election and beyond. To paraphrase that old country song, we ain't going nowhere.


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We are stuck there for a long time, thanks to Bush and the gunboat diplomats that support his agenda.

Soth Korea comes to mind. we are there to stop communist expansion and such, sounds likje the plan for Iraq.

Yea, with a base being established they are in it for the long haul.

Since we agree on that, how about, the WOT? How long will that be fought?

Well, tough call. That is something that will never go away but as long as our resources are spread as thin as they are right now it will be a lot harder to tackle.

IMO, the WOT is with us from now until someone has the guts to call it won. kinda like the war on ndrugs a never ending source of income for bureaucrats.