“The uncomfortable reality is this: nothing in Iraq worth fighting for remains achievable, andnothing achievable in Iraqremains worth fighting for. Democrats have made the decision—rightly, Ithink—that withdrawing from Iraqis the least bad of many bad options. But they shouldn’t kid themselves intothinking that a majority of the troops doing the fighting agree with them.”

-And lastly that the Dems need to re-package their messagefrom one of “support” to one of understanding the military’s desire forvindication and victory, but conjoined with the reality that any furtheractivity in Iraqis a waste of effort and lives.  And thatthe Dems must have to courage to communicate this clearly to the troops byrefining their messaging to the military in a manner that is more respectful ofthe military’s persona, drive, and commitment to purpose.

 
“Elected officials, however, have to judge what theybelieve to be in the national interest, and that means calling an end to theoccupation of Iraq.Soldiers like Wellman won’t agree, but if Democrats can at least signal thatthey acknowledge and respect his point of view, they’ll have a better chance atgetting Wellman to respect their own. And meeting partway is a lot better thannot meeting at all.”

 
Read the entire piece. Spencer makes a compelling case in the formulation of his advice for Demcandidates, and indeed for the entire country, should we get to the point thatour troops are withdrawn without evidence of a definable victory.

But Spencer draws his conclusions with a myopic view of Iraq isolatedfrom the rest of the global offensive against Islamist extremists.  There may come a time when the US withdrawsfrom Iraq without clear or measurable indications of “victory,” but now is notthe time to begin an isolationist withdrawal when we have extremists currentlyengaged on at least five fronts, and are rolling up their disparate networksworldwide.  

A slackening of our efforts in Iraq at this time will only addfuel to the global extremist efforts, and allow them to focus on gaining largertoeholds worldwide.  Insurgents arecurrently engaged in Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia,the Philippines, and Lebanon.  To let up now would only give extremists timeto re-distribute, to re-organize, and likely to achieve some successes wherethey are now bogged down and over-extended.

Spencer is right, if we withdraw, we need to figure out away to separate the effort of the troops from the efforts of our generals andour civilian authorities.  His advicehowever comes way too soon.