10:13 am
Quote of the Day
Matt Yglesias on the absurdity of the arguments against a timetable for pullout in Iraq:
[A]ny time a politician offers a medium-term plan — 16 month withdrawal timeline, treaty to reduce global carbon emissions, health care reform, whatever — you can make it sound absurd by saying it would be crazy to stick with the plan under absolutely any circumstances.
Maybe a race of alien lizards will land in Mosul and commence their program of world conquest, in which case it would be odd to stick with the 16 month withdrawal timeline and I assume John McCain would revisit his plan to kick Russia out of the G-8 in the interests of human solidarity.
But under a range of realistically likely sets of “facts on the ground” a timeline for a phased withdrawal of forces from Iraq would improve the strategic context in which we’re operating and free up resources for use on other problems.`
Heh. You gotta love any foreign policy argument that invokes Harry Turtledove. Yes he’s a bit of a hack, but no more than Michael O’Hanlon and other Iraq die-hards.
Oh, one more thing: why does the Washington Post think it is necessary to quote one of the few remaining Democratic supporters of the war every single time it does a story on domestic divisions over Iraq? Why aren’t they also talking to Republican opponents (Chuck Hagel, Ron Paul, Walter “Freedom Fries” Jones etc.)? That’s the real alternate history here.
The Post can’t have it both ways. Either they can (inaccurately) portray the disagreement over withdrawal as a partisan divide, or they can (correctly) give voice to supporters and critics on both sides of the aisle. Right now, their current approach is no more fair and balanced than Bill O’Reilly.
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