McGovern letter

Here are some excerpts from a letter to the New York Times from George McGovern:

I am a longtime admirer of Thomas L. Friedman. I disagree, however, with his advice to Senator John Kerry relative to our Army in Iraq, which is summarized in his final line: "We will not run" (column, Feb. 15).

This determination to stand and fight is tempting to political leaders. The trouble with this appeal is that brave young Americans do the bleeding and dying - not the political leaders who committed them to a mistaken war. Terrorists are killing American soldiers in Iraq because our Army is in Iraq. I hope that President Bush, with the help of the United Nations, will find a way to return Iraq to the Iraqis and bring our Army home.
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Replacing Saddam Hussein with Ahmad Chalabi would be comparable to replacing Jack the Ripper with Al Capone. Such a development is not worth risking the death of one additional American.

How is one to take this seriously? Soldiers rather than political leaders do the bleeding and the dying in all wars, not just mistaken ones. If Iraq is returned to the Iraqis, George Bush will have played a key role in getting that process started; and then Iraqis will be able to decide if they want Ahmad Chalabi or not. Finally, whatever one may think of Chalabi, it is a grotesque sort of estimate that sees him as the rough moral equivalent of Saddam Hussein - responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. (Hat tip: Ted Miller.)