Here’s a sadly typical response to my previous post:

  • “Look at it this way: if Iraq’s lost, the Dems and the media will have a whole new quagmire template for the next 40 years.”
  • so, we’re sending american troops into harms way so republicans have better chance in ‘08, ‘12, etc? what about democracy in the middle east, or did that go the way of the WsMD?
  • i guess at least you’re honest!

Oh dear, oh dear. I was making a big geopolitical point that great powers can’t go around losing every war that comes up and expect to remain great powers. If the Iraq adventure is perceived by Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, Belgium, Slovenia, and the South Sandwich Islands to be a defeat for the United States, I don’t think winning the 2012 election is going to be any consolation. Nations lose wars, not political parties — a point the parochial left seems unable to grasp.