Here we have an article in Instapundit that claims that the war is more popular than we might think, because 80% [correction: Because I wrote this early in the morning, I somehow morphed “only on in eight Americans currently favors an immediate pullout“ into 80% being willing to stay.  Sorry for the confusion]of the people polled believe that we have to stay in Iraq until the country is stabilized.

     Translating the sensible recognition that we will make things worse if we pull out without restoring stability to Iraq into support for the administration’s war policy is simply silly.

     Now that the die has been cast, we have to work with what we have.  The dominant voice I’ve been hearing from the left is that the action in Iraq was ill-considered and sold to the American people and the world on what was at best faulty intelligence and analysis.  The administration needs to convince us that they know what they are doing going forward.  There does not seem to be an effective and coherent strategy for winning the war, and we do not get a sense of urgency from the administration in winning the war and bringing it to a close, and that they do not appear to feel the least bit accountable to the American people for the money spent and the lives lost.  Beyond that, there is a strong sense that this administration doesn’t know what’s really going on in Iraq…that there is a disconnect between their perception and the facts.

     Some who recognize that we should stay in Iraq until it is stable, do not believe that it will gain stability under the current strategy.  I am one of those people.  I hope I am wrong, because it doesn’t look like anything will get the administration to change their minds and do anything different than what they are doing now.

     For the sake of my dear cousin who is going to Iraq in October, and for the sake of all our soldiers who are over there, and those who will be sent in the future, I hope I am wrong.  I would love to be wrong.  I pray I am wrong.  I want this administration to be right in that there was no better way to deal with this situation, and there was no way to make us safer and spare the lives of those who have been and will be killed.  I would love to see total success in Iraq and know that our troops were given everything they needed to make them as effective and safe as possible, and know that there was a compelling reason why we had to go there now and make the choices that were made.

     Yet the conservative punditry continues to argue as if the dominant voice on the left is saying “pull out now and leave a big mess”, and “Saddam was a great guy, and we should have left him alone”.   Instapundit even links to a blog claiming that liberals want the effort in Iraq to fail, and one that calls you a “loser” and implies that you are a terrorist sympathizer if it bothers you that the administration doesn’t seem to feel any urgency to complete the mission.

     Apparently, it is no longer a right and duty of the American people to demand that their elected officials show a sense of urgency to complete the mission, flexibility and responsiveness to the reality on the ground, or  a sense of accountability for the financial and human cost of their chosen strategy.  

     Somehow, this doesn’t surprise me.  When the administration appears to be fighting the war they want to fight rather than the one that is in front of them, it makes sense that their apologists would have the argument that they want to have rather than the one that is being presented to them.