A reader writes:
Background on my attitude: I thought the war was unsupported from the outset. It was a mistake and one we have just piled on mistakes to make worse. We should never have gone in, if we did, we needed double the troops, a better plan for the postwar period, one that was flexible so that if X happens, we can adjust to point Y. In short, this is a cluster-f**k. It could be worse, but that’s like Bill Parcells saying Sunday night "Hey, we could have missed that field goal". Clear enough about my attitude towards Iraq? Good.
However, I’m a firm believer in the Colin Powell thought process: we broke it and everything that’s happened since, including things outside our control, is our responsibility (not nessesarily our fault). If we leave now, we create a humanitarian crisis of such epic proportion that if it were any other country, we would be begging our leaders to intervene. I believe in being responsible for your actions, right or wrong. With that in mind, I think it is our responsibility to throw everything we have at this to fix it. If it means doubling the Army by starting the draft again, let’s do it. If it means paying every Iraqi $1000 to stop fighting, lets raise those taxes and start sending checks. If it means we have to fly the Iranian flag on the Fourth of July, we do it. Whatever it takes to fix the problem, we do, even if it causes much more pain than we’ve felt so far. Like a parent for their child, we protect them with our lives and if it takes the end of America to make Iraq whole, we owe it to them to go to that extreme.
I see any options short of solving the problem with the fewest Iraqi deaths to be passive-aggressive.
The Dish 