By Staff
My gut reaction to Marine combat veteran of Vietnam and hawkish Pennsylvania Democratic U.S. Rep. John Murtha's heartfelt call for a hasty withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq surprised me.
But Murtha didn't mention the consequences of such a pullout.
While passionate debate raged in Washington about whether President Bush intentionally misled the country into war, there's no changing the past - just the future.
And instead of wasting more time on that pointless question now that we've been there three Thanksgivings, we should be discussing two others:
Would an American withdrawal make the Middle East more stable or less?
Would it raise or lower the threat of another terrorist strike here at home?
If stability is weakened and al-Qaida is emboldened by an apparent weakening of resolve, we better think twice about plunging down that slippery slope.
Perhaps my reluctant reaction was influenced by an eight-page article in the December Vanity Fair by Jonathan Foreman, who returned to Baghdad, where he was embedded in 2003.
Foreman concludes: “Despite frustrations battling … for supplies and money, the Iraqi (Ministry of Defense) for showers for the Iraqi Army recruits or colleagues who don't get the importance of the mission, remains, above all else, dedicated. ‘We are winning here,' (Capt. Ed Ballanco, 30, who is married and has a master's degree in international relations) said, ‘but we are winning in spite of ourselves.' ”
Quips, quotes and qulunkers: “The two parties are fighting about how the war began so they don't have to talk about how it will end.”
columnist Kathleen Parker
“Couldn't they have found a slightly hipper venue than NBC's 40-year-old daytime drama (like, say, ‘The CBS Evening News' with Bob Schieffer)?”
At 27, just like Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Mama Cass, Jim Morrison and Kurt Cobain. Did you know? His Cotchford Farm, a red-tiled, 16th-century country estate in Sussex, an hour south of London, inspired “Winnie the Pooh” when author A.A. Milne lived there for 30 years. A statue of Milne's son, the real Christopher Robin, still stands on the grounds.
columnist Debra Saunders
In fact, the collection is the first known use of his nom-de-tune, Dylan.