Remember when Afghanistan was the forgotten war? Now Iraq is in danger of being the forgotten war. Ironically, if there are indictments in the Plame affair, there will be even less chance that the minds of the country from the presidency to the poorest will focus on what is to be done in Iraq.
Matthew Yglesias and Sam Rosenfeld have an excellent article in the American Prospect about the lessons to be drawn from the Iraq war. Don't do it again is the short version.
But what to do now? The money that's been poured in (put on the national credit card) so far has been sunk. It doesn't affect what we should do now. There's a good argument that withdrawing American troops now is the least worst option. But although the war is becoming a debacle, and although that is more widely acknowledged, substantial numbers of American troops will remain in Iraq, largely forgotten, for a decade or more. The American body politic would rather sacrifice more soldiers than admit a mistake, and minimize the future damage to the treasury and the nation.
Posted by robe0419 at October 21, 2005 2:24 PM