Jules Crittenden published a post at his own blog today, relating to a column he wrote for today’s Boston Herald:
The talk of exit strategies for Iraq has me wondering. Who was the last man to die for what John Kerry called a mistake? Was it that American soldier whose name is the last name on the last panel of the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington D.C.? Was it a soldier in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam, whichever true believer didn’t strip off his uniform and desert in the end? The last of the 2 million Cambodian men, women and children to die in the Khmer Rouge killing fields in 1979. A Vietnamese boat person, thrown over the side when the pirates of the South China Sea took his money and his wife in the early 1980s? A suicidal, alcoholic or drug-addicted Vietnam veteran some years after that, finally succumbing to despair after his sacrifice and those of his friends had been reviled and rendered meaningless? The last man to die as a result of the decision to abandon Vietnam may not be dead yet.
So if we precipitously exit Iraq, who will be the last man, woman or child to die for that mistake? The mistake of abandonment. When, and where, and by whose hands will that person die?
It is a question we have to ask ourselves whenever we are debating about Iraq. As you all know I believe that Bush et alia have lost the war. At least regarding its original goal: a democratic and united Iraq. I do not see that happening any longer. Too many mistakes have been made.
However, that does not automatically mean that the best way from here is a nearly immediate withdrawal.
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