No Easy Out

Senator Obama curries favor among impressionable youth downstate, calling Iraq a "dumb war".

Sounds lame to me, from such a usually articulate Senator. Perhaps he has been struck inarticulate after his cover shot for Men's Vogue.

But then Obama tries to suggest that he has a bigger menace in mind that we must confront--Iran and then North Korea.

During a question-and-answer session, Obama highlighted the many problems he perceives with the conduct of the war in Iraq, saying Iraq is, "A dumb war. We haven't thought it through."

Obama also says enemies in Iran and North Korea, along with terrorist groups bent on doing the United States harm, are getting stronger while the U.S. is bogged down in Iraq.

It is the Senator of Illinois who hasn't "thought it through". Guess he thinks the next war looks like a better bet or something. Or maybe it's just taking a page from the usual Democrat playbook, pushing problems down the road. You might say that was the entire Clinton administration in a nutshell.

But nasty, crazy, killer dictators can come to their own conclusions, and if we bail in Iraq with the job undone, we invite disaster. Brendan Miniter, Opinion Journal, via RCP:

Withdrawing from Iraq now would usher in a new dark period in the U.S., one in which the nation makes clear it is unwilling to confront emerging threats. Leaving Iraq in chaos would leave the U.S. a hobbled nation that would be unable or unwilling to protect its own national security interests. Foreign policies are built as much on the psychological makeup of a nation as they are on its economic and military prowess. If the U.S. turns tail rather than confronting jihadism and the insurgency in Iraq, would it somehow muster the strength to confront the serious threats posed by a nuclear armed Iran or a missile touting North Korea?

Sorry, Mr. Fence-Sitting Senator, the grass doesn't get greener on the other side. It all won't get easier.

UPDATE: Excellent essay by Peter Wehner, RCP on Iraq. (Rebuttal to George Will. Dumb is catching. Maybe Will is up for the October issue of Men's Vogue.)