Important NY Times piece today, with excellent reporting, on Islamic militants in Iraq.

“Iraq is the nexus where many issues are coming together — Islam versus democracy, the West versus the axis of evil, Arab nationalism versus some different types of political culture,” said Barham Saleh, the prime minister of this Kurdish-controlled part of northern Iraq. “If the Americans succeed here, this will be a monumental blow to everything the terrorists stand for.”

Democratic candidates for president who were against the Iraq war but don’t want to appear Dovish argue that Iraq was a mistake because it is a distraction from the war on terror. So how do they respond then to Saleh’s point?