The "Q" word

Dan Savage, a guest blogger on The Daily Dish, signs off today. But this "liberal hawk" wasn't about to go out without a bang. Some highlights:

Thanks to the incompetence of this administration, we can no longer avoid the “Q” word. It’s a quagmire. Period.

Does anyone in the White House know what the fuck they’re doing?

George Bush is good at one thing and one thing only: winning elections and coasting along.

...[W]e should get out [of Iraq] because, with the Bushies running the show for the next three years, we’re simply not going to win. It’s just go to drag on and on. This war, as I see it now, is either going to be nasty, brutal and short or nasty, brutal and long. I prefer nastry, brutal and short, if only because it will mean fewer Americans will die. And fewer Iraqis too, I suspect.

I admit that I can sympathize with this guy. Because like him, even though I backed the war, I'm not the biggest fan of the Bush administration's handling of it. In some sense he may be right: things aren't going to get much better while Bush is still in office. Although I might question just how bad the condition really is to begin with. We know for a fact that the media focuses on the negative. But yes, people are dying... we know that. American soldiers and innocent Iraqis are dying every day due to needless violence and bloodshed on the part of insurgents. But what I think Dan should understand is that, in essence, this war started because of them and not because of us. Radical Islam is a hostile force, one that has been building up strength for years now, and it will not rest unless and until democracy is brought to that region. Cutting and running now would be like handing Iraq over on a silver plate to the extremists. It simply can't be done.