Numerous readers told me that the Zogby poll of troops in Iraq has been definitively and conclusively debunked. The most detailed critical analysis of the poll that I’ve seen does not bear this interpretation. Here it is; read for yourself. Nor do I consider the fact of Zogby having Arab antecedents to be dispositive, as rather a lot of my emailers seem to. And if the fact of an antiwar organization having been involved in commissioning the poll invalidates the poll results, what should I think of the next poll I read commissioned by anyone with an axe to grind? Which is to say, pretty much any poll at all.

Nor is it the case, as Rich’s e-mailer claimed, that I used the Zogby poll as my “all purpose rejoinder.” I used it as a rejoinder to the single, absurd proposition that my declaring a negative position would cause dismay and demoralization among the troops in Iraq. That proposition remains absurd. If anyone has anything better than the Zogby poll, let’s see it. (And I’m sorry, but “Ralph Peters says…” or “Vic Davis Hanson says…” doesn’t cut it. These are apologists for the current policy.)

To Rich’s Russia-1917 point (“What [George Will and Derb] are saying is that because violent minorities have in the past taken over countries, all is lost in Iraq and we should give up trying to check a violent minority there.”) No, that’s not what we are saying, Rich. What we are saying is, that the fact that most people want a peaceful life — most Russians in 1916, most Iraqis in 2006 — tells us very little about the fate of nations. To tell us this fact is to tell us nothing. Who doubts it? So why do Ralph Peters et al keep telling us it? The desire of most people for a peaceful life simply isn’t a very big factor in historical developments, as history amply illustrates.

Rich’s “having come this far, it would be folly simply to throw up our hands” sounds a lot like Macbeth’s “returning were as tedious as go o’er.” Remember what happened to him. There is a time when throwing up your hands is the right thing to do, and the greater folly is persisting in a misguided enterprise, when more urgent matters need our attention.