In 1934 it might well have been Conservatives like Churchill who pushed for rearmament and thought Nazi Germany was scary, perhaps for their own ends, but the danger was clear to anyone who could think.

Noble purple fingered Iraqis will not transform the ME. But the danger of handing them, their manpower, base of operations, oil money for terror, and hard-won allies on the ground and intelligence networks to Al Qaeda and Iran who are allied like Hitler and Mussolini is clear to anyone who can think.

Bob Kerrey can in no way be considered a friend of the Administration. But he can see the danger.

Liberals and Dems and the Media can run the risk of becoming Stanley Baldwin, who constantly dismissed any danger from Hitler and thought Nazi Germany a splendid place.

How many US cities are you prepared to lose to avoid the ugliness of Iraq?

It’s more than cynical. It’s misinformed, overconfident and stupid.

Why would they be so ungrateful? First of all because they’re Arabs. Who live in the Middle East. The US has been getting bad press in those parts for decades. Secondly because Bush 1 told them to overthrow Saddam in 1991 and then had coalition soldiers stand idly by, sometimes as Republican Guard troops moved right through their ranks to massacre them. Then we sanctioned the whole country into the poorhouse for over a decade for Saddam’s sins. Now we’ve invaded, occupied and destroyed their country. We arrested many of them without charges, locked them up without trial and tortured them. 4 million are displaced. 2 million outside the country. Probably a million have died. 53% in the last poll said they have a close friend or family member who has been killed or wounded by the violence. 69% say coalition troops make the security situation worse, not better. 71% say killing American soldiers is justifiable. 60% are unemployed with no way to feed their families. A majority say there may be a short term spike in violence once we leave but they still want us out.

Bush knows all that and it’s the reason he won’t withdraw. If he can just hang on til January ‘09 someone else, be it a Repub or Dem, (and there’s no way it’s going to be a Repub if we’re still in Iraq) will be left holding the bag, taking the blame for his latest failure as has been the case his whole life. That’s not worth one more life, American or Iraqi.

You and Yon can wax rhapsodic about the Brits handing over a province to another set of Arab mafia bosses but you’re just deluding yourselves. Nothing changes the above facts. If that’s too cynical for you, well too bad, that’s life.