Stephen Spruiell spoke to Democratic congressman Brian Baird last night about Iraq and the grief he’s getting for being a member of the small responsible Democrat coalition. In case you think he’s a fresh Dick Cheney clone here’s his honest assessment:

“I still believe that this invasion was one of the biggest mistakes in the history of the United States of America and it had tragic consequences for our soldiers, their families, the Iraqi people and the stability of the region and, ultimately, for our security,” Baird says. “But, having made that mistake, the question is: ‘What do we do on the ground?’ Having been there, in the region five times and in Iraq itself two times in just the last four months, I think it’s pretty clear to me that a premature withdrawal would lead to greater chaos in the country and that that chaos would expand within the region.
“I believe we have a moral responsibility to the Iraqi people to try to establish stability and security and a strategic interest to try to make this work as well as we can, given the conditions that we’ve helped create already,” he says.

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