History Revisited - Second Element Updated

Nota Bene: Earlier I suggested that Native Americans weren't immigrants... of course they were, but I was addressing the last 500 years or so.

The following is part of my 'stating the obvious' series as well.

There are curious things going on concerning discussions about Iraq. Of course the mental gymnastics of the various presidential candidates on Iraq approaches the bizarre, but across the board the discussions have taken on a surreal flavor.

It doesn't matter if going in to Iraq was right or wrong... it doesn't matter if lies were told... and it REALLY doesn't matter who gets blamed!

Lessons learned have value that I'll not discount, but just now that's an exercise.

I am lost, I do not understand the priorities I'm seeing touted so it's hopeless to try to explain them.

We are there NOW! That is something no amount of revisionist history will undo.

And the delusion that the enemies that our troops are facing are not aware of what's being said and done here is criminal in nature. To say nothing of the devastation that will happen if we continue down the path towards quiting. Are our politicians so foolish?

I 'm afraid the genuine facts leave little doubt in that matter - they are.

Update: This article is making the rounds and fit's so well with the above that I should get credit.

Today, in Iraq, there should be no illusion that defeat would come at an acceptable price. George Orwell wrote that the quickest way of ending a war is to lose it. But anyone who thinks an American defeat in Iraq will bring a merciful end to this conflict is deluded. Defeat would produce an explosion of euphoria among all the forces of Islamist extremism, throwing the entire Middle East into even greater upheaval. The likely human and strategic costs are appalling to contemplate. Perhaps that is why so much of the current debate seeks to ignore these consequences.