Iraq II: Quotes du Jour

Senator John McCain, addressing Defense Secretary Rumsfeld and two senior generals at the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, expressed concern that U.S. troops are simply being moved from one trouble spot to another and Iraq descends into chaos. He cited Falluja and Ramadi as examples.

Everybody knows we've got big problems in Ramadi, and I said where are you going to get the troops? 'Well we're going to have to move them from Falluja.' Now we're going to have to move troops into Baghdad from someplace else. It's very disturbing.

What I worry about is we're playing a game of whack-a-mole.

New York Times flat worlder and op-ed columnist Thomas Friedman, who until Friday had urged the U.S. to stay the course in Iraq:

The administration now has to admit what anyone — including myself — who believed in the importance of getting Iraq right has to admit: Whether for Bush reasons or Arab reasons, it is not happening, and we can't throw more good lives after good lives.

<>. . . Yes, the best way to contain Iran would have been to produce a real Shiite-led democracy in Iraq, exposing the phony one in Tehran. But second best is leaving Iraq. Because the worst option — the one Iran loves — is for us to stay in Iraq, bleeding, and in easy range to be hit by Iran if we strike its nukes.