I missed this yesterday. Jeff Goldstein asks a question to which I admit that I have not given too much serious thought.

What if we lose?

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Jeff goes on to relate the discussion to his previous posts on the undermining of our efforts by the Left’s rhetoric. That’s his bag and I agree with him, in fact it is hard to imagine that a thinking person could disagree. That is all very interesting, but it never really answers the question.

A military loss in Iraq is laughable. The terrorists have trouble escaping attacks with their rear ends intact when going against newly trained Iraqi Police; they don’t even bother to attack US troops anymore, so much for being dumb. So, as Jeff rightly puts it, the loss can only come from the sapping of the will of the people here at home. What do these people have to offer? What alternative to sticking to the plan and finishing the job does the left offer? From what I can tell, all they are offering is an out. A siren song of ending the war right now, bringing the beloved troops safely home and putting this whole nasty mess behind us. Well, that and an unending stream of attacks on the President and his supporters.

What if we really did pull out today? I am no expert, nor have I really thought it out, but my first thought is that we would see the kind of chaos, killing and pestilence that was the talk of the Left before the invasion. Hundreds of Thousands killed, a widening of the conflict as Turkey defends its interest in keeping a Kurdish nation a dream, Iran moves to take the Shia south under to pretext of protecting Shia holy places and Syria gaining influence (if not actual territory) in the west. The terrorists would then be free to set up the Caliphate in the Sunni areas that would make the Taliban look like pussies. Sure the partially trained Iraqi military and Police would put up a good fight, but with pressure from all sides the outlook would not be good.

Is there another scenario that is more likely? I don’t see one.

For all this mayhem, what would we have gained? A feel good moment for the Left as America is shamed, another generation of bitter vets, and a new open wound on our national psyche. That doesn’t even begin to address the real problems of proving UBL right in that we are nothing but a “paper tiger” and invite still more terrorism. Conveniently we will have provided a new unassailable training ground for that terror to grow and train.

I refuse to believe that the people of the United States are so stupid to really believe that if we were to pull out that all would be forgiven and we can now live in peace with our Muslim brothers and sisters. No matter how much we want this to be over with (we are a short attention span/instant gratification population), I can’t believe that we would support the Left in this folly. I am just like everyone else, I am sick of the war, I want it to be over with, I want to correct mistakes and do self-evaluation in order to help eliminate future mistakes. Anyone who says that they are happy we are at war and hopes that it lasts a long time is either a liar or a fool. Even given these feelings I think the public understands that we have to press on.

Surrender is not an option.

Update: Jeff gets the coveted "Generic InstaLanch", congrats buddy! Of course it is all a Instapundit plot to overwhelm the coveted "Sins-o-Lanch".