Go to 44: The Obama Presidency
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- Go to Wishful thinking..on both sides
"If American men and women were dying in July in a clearly futile cause, it would indeed be immoral to wait until September to order their retreat."
Very well written sentence, except for the "if" and "would". There really is no "if" about it. American men and women are -- and have long been -- dying for a "futile cause". Our troops have been there for four years and several months, and still are getting killed every day. Meanwhile the Iraqi civilian death toll continues to rise, and no political settlement appears likely.
Here's an "if" statement that I could defend: if staying there would prevent things from getting "way, way worse" WITHOUT losing more American lives every day, then I would be willing to have the troops stay there. But I am not willing to sacrifice more American lives just to keep Iraq from getting even worse. That is more burden than can be justifiably laid on one country's shoulders.
Nor should withdrawal advocates pretend the situation will be better as a result of our leaving, or that someone else will come to the rescue. That withdrawal advocates do make this disingenuous argument, however, does not mean their conclusion is wrong. They are using a bad argument to justify the right policy, because admitting the whole truth would seem too upsetting. Someone has to be willing to say that there is a limit to America's responsibility to Iraq, and that sacrificing more American lives there exceeds that limit.
posted by
Dyl_Pickle
on July 14, 2007 at 7:49 AM
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