Quote of the Day

"The New York Times is for withdrawal of U.S. troops from most of Iraq, except maybe the Kurdish north. Even the promising Anbar-type initiatives - which seem to require an aggressive U.S. military presence - are apparently to be abandoned. The Times admits the results of the withdrawal will 'most likely' be chaos, including 'further ethnic cleansing, even genocide.' But it still prefers withdrawal. Jules Crittenden finds this morally curious, and so do I. ...I could be convinced that withdrawal is justified because the ensuing burst of sectarian killing will be short, followed by relative stability - preferable, in the long run, to continued occupation. I could be convinced we should abandon the goal of a unitary Iraqi state and focus on some sort of engineered partition. I hope I couldn't be convinced that we should abandon Iraqis to 'genocide' just because the resulting deaths can be blamed on Bush.

- Mickey Kaus in Kausfiles on Slate.com, July 8th, 2007 (ellipsis in original)