War and Peace
Molly Ivins, after receiving the usual* hate-mail from the wingnuts on the right after this article:

“Well, I ain't gonna take it anymore. I am not shutting up for Bill O'Reilly or anyone else.

I opposed our unprovoked, unnecessary invasion of Iraq on the grounds that it would be a short, easy war followed by the peace from hell. I predicted that every terrorist in the Middle East would be drawn to Iraq like a magnet.

I was right, and I'm not going to apologize for it.”

You go, girl. Then she adds this:

“I also realize that the future in Iraq is a lot more important than any petty "I was right" vindication...I am trying hard to be a responsible citizen here; I don't think the choice is between "staying the course" or "cut and run." I think we need to change course and be honest enough to admit it to ourselves and everybody else.”

That, unfortunately, is the space (you know, the one between a rock and a hard place) that we find ourselves in. We can't abandon Iraq (or Afghanistan, for that matter) to chaos. Doing so would result in a defeat worse than any military setback we could possibly suffer. But we need to change course and find an effective grand strategy - one that rebuilds and stabilizes Iraq and Afghanistan and that refocuses our efforts on actually fighting the war against terrorism without turning it into a war on Islam.

*(It requires absolutely no imagination at all to figure out what kinds of things were said. That's because your basic right wingnut doesn't have any imagination; all he or she can do is crudely parrot the same tired lines. Your basic left wingnut, on the other hand, suffers from an excess of imagination, which is why they come up with such a wide variety of truly ridiculous notions.)