frankhagan.com

When the walls come tumblin’ down;
When the walls come crumblin’, crumblin’;
When the walls come tumblin’, tumblin’ down.
- John Mellencamp, “Crumblin’ Down”.

Now comes Lanny Davis, former Special Counsel to President Clinton, with a new view of the Iraq War after considering the events of the last few weeks. As he writes in the Washington Times:

The surge did, in fact, lead to a reduction of violence, confirmed by media on the ground as well as our military leaders.
…
This willingness by the Shi’ite-dominated al-Maliki government to move against the Sadr Shi’ite extremists won crucial credibility for the government among many Sunni leaders and Sunnis on the streets, who joined together with Shi’ites to turn against the al Qaeda in Iraq and other Taliban-like extremists.

These are facts, not arguments.

I think there are a lot of antiwar Democrats who, like me, are impressed by these facts and who now see a moral obligation, after all the carnage and destruction wrought by our military intervention, not just to pick up and leave without looking over our shoulders.

H/T to Sister Toldjah

President Bush may well be singing that Mellencamp song right about now …

Well, some people ain’t no damn good.
You can trust ‘em, you can’t love ‘em. No good deed goes unpunished.
And I don’t mind being their whippin’ boy.
I’ve had that pleasure for years and years
No, no, I never was a sinner. Tell me, what else can I do?
Second best is what you get ’til you learn to bend the rules
And time respects no person and what you lift up must fall
There waitin’ outside to claim my crumblin’ walls.

While giving no quarter that the war was ill-conceived and unnecessary, Davis admits that the situation has improved enough that there is a humanitarian concern we have to consider.

Surely we owe the al-Maliki government and the Shi’ite and Sunni soldiers who put their lives on the line against Shi’ite and Sunni extremists and terrorists at our behest some continuing presence and support and patience as they strive to find peace, political reconciliation – and maybe even the beginnings of a stable democracy.

When the walls come tumblin’ down;
When the walls come crumblin’, crumblin’;
When the walls come tumblin’, tumblin’ down.

I just know I can’t get out of my mind that lady with the purple finger held up, smiling into the camera. If getting in was a mistake, then getting out – how and when – is not so simple as long as there is hope that she can someday live in a democratic Iraq that can help America in the war against terrorism.

Indeed.

Frank Politics