I Wish Cheney Would Quit

Yesterday, the Vice President let slip this doggerel of war:

If you look at our history — and crucial moments in history, whether you look at the Civil War, World War II or other conflicts we've been engaged in — there were many, many times when we could have quit, when we could have said, gee, that's just too tough. We're not going to go there. We're not going to make it.

He's speaking, of course, about the war in Iraq, and he's accusing those who would urge a pullout of US forces of being quitters and cowards. According to Cheney, these people have no stomach for the hard slog and would rather we all just go home and to hell with the world.

It's hard to know what to say when confronted by such an obvious straw man. I think that Cheney would like to believe that he and Bush have a monopoly on strength, will and fortitude — a black-and-white world like that is so much easier for those who think in absolutes to deal with. It's not surprising, therefore, that Cheney likes to paint the "war on terror" as a clash of wills, where all that is required for victory is a refusal to give up.

But the war in Iraq won't be won by willpower alone, and most everyone advocating a troop pullout believes that it is the only option left to us to avoid a complete catastrophe in the region. So let me be clear on this, Dick: I want out because I believe that it's in our national interest to get out. (I also believe that it was in our national interest never to start this war in the first place, but that's another story.)

The fact is, Iraq is broken beyond repair, and we're the ones who broke it. The war was a wrong-headed plan badly executed, and it went downhill from there. Perhaps Cheney needs the notion that "victory" is still possible as a way of avoiding taking responsibility for all the mistakes he's made (has he gotten even one important thing right in six years?), but whatever the reason, Cheney now is just a broken record who has nothing of real substance to say.