With the situation in Iraq darkening, hawks are saying we can't leave without unleashing a catastrophe. The problem is, that'll happen if we stay, too.
By James P. Pinkerton
As a sense of gloom about Iraq escalated along with the fighting the past two weeks, so did neoconservative calls to "stay the course" -- even if it's a course to nowhere.
Once, the right painted visions of cakewalks, of jubilant Iraqis welcoming their own conquest, of blossoming secular pro-Western democracy. Now that mirage has dissipated. Following President George W. Bush's press conference last Tuesday, neocon Bill Kristol told the Los Angeles Times, "I was depressed." The publisher of the Weekly Standard freely conceded that for those Americans who were "doubtful or worried," Bush failed to close the sale. "He didn't explain how we are going to win there."
So what do the neocons do now? Their optimistic vision of Iraq as the first domino to fall in their favor may have failed, but they are never at a loss for words. So they have a new line. Instead of offering us carrots, they're threatening us with sticks. OK, they seem to be saying, there's not much upside, but look at the downside.
"The consequences of failure in Iraq would be unthinkable," the president told the nation on Tuesday night. To sum up the hawks' arguments, if we leave Iraq we will have:
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http://salon.com/opinion/feature/2004/04/17/neocon/index.html
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