Stay the Course?

Bush spoke to the VFW the other day, as part of a campaign to stem the growing alienation of Americans from his war in Iraq. No longer are we at war to keep WMD from falling into the hands of terrorists. There are no WMD. No longer are we there to oppose radical Islam -- the new Iraqi Constitution embraces an Islamic theocracy similar to Iran's. No longer are we there to defeat the insurgency; according to Rumsfeld, that would take 15 years -- and it appears that our occupation of Iraq is fueling recruitment for the insurgency, even as it dampens recruitment for the US military. In an editorial today, the New York Times takes on this question:

In an address that repeatedly invoked Sept. 11 - the day that terrorists who had no discernable connection whatsoever to Iraq attacked targets on American soil - Mr. Bush offered a new reason for staying the course: to keep faith with the men and women who have already died in the war.

"We owe them something," Mr. Bush said. "We will finish the task that they gave their lives for." It was, as the mother of one fallen National Guardsman said, an argument that "makes no sense."

No one wants young men and women to die just because others have already made the ultimate sacrifice. The families of the dead do not want that, any more than they want to see more soldiers die because politicians cannot bear to admit that they sent American forces to war by mistake.

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