A Beacon in the Dark...

...or a Pit of Hell. That's the decision we face in Iraq.

Leave Iraq and not only watch it fall into violent dispair, watch the anti-American sentiment grow into a force much greater than what we witnessed on September 11th, 2001. Not only would we have let down the Iraqi's that just want to live peacefully, every last soul with an ounce of anti-Americanism, would vociferously point to the violent hellhole of suffering as justification for hating and killing Americans.

Jihadis are looking for an excuse to recruit, train, and kill. A strong democracy would deny them that...

WaPo columnist Frederick Kagan reiterates this, in a powerful way:

Our enemies watched the debacle in Somalia and drew conclusions: America is weak, unable to stomach even the smallest level of casualties and willing to lose rather than fight. The invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq changed the equation. Al-Qaeda leaders did not expect us to attack, and they regarded their unanticipated defeat as a catastrophe. Iran's leaders and North Korea's Kim Jong Il saw the invasion of Iraq as the first phase of an attack on the "axis of evil" and were fearful. But the protracted insurgency and the apparent weakening of U.S. will are emboldening them once again.

In 1991 the United States encouraged rebellions against Saddam Hussein and then abandoned to his inhuman vengeance the Kurds and Shiites who answered the call. That abandonment, still fresh in the minds of many Iraqis, is one reason for the suspicion with which the United States was greeted in 2003. What will happen if we abandon the progressive forces of Iraq once again with the hypocritical declaration that the resultant failure is their own fault? What reasonable moderate in the Muslim world -- or anywhere -- will ever again rely on America?

It's too bad the Democrats don't realize or don't want to realize this, giving politics priority over national interest. Fortunately the Republicans do, but the way the rebuilding process has been handled, change is needed. Change which might require new leadership.