The American war in Iraq

Jeff Weintraub, commenting on a report on US combat deaths in Iraq and Iraqi civilian casualties in recent months:

Around the end of 2006 and the beginning of 2007, as the inter-sectarian bloodbath in Arab Iraq seemed to be escalating out of control, a great many people concluded that Iraq was going irretrievably over the edge, that further US military involvement was a hopeless cause, and that the only sensible course was for the US to abandon the effort and start pulling out. There were some genuinely plausible reasons to reach this conclusion, but it turned out to be incorrect. In retrospect, it's clear that on the fundamental question as it was posed around the beginning of 2007 - whether or not the right course was for [the] US to admit failure and abandon Iraq - Generals Petraeus and Odierno and (let's give credit where it's due) John McCain were right, whereas Barack Obama, most Democrats, much of the top military brass, and a great many Republicans were wrong.

The rest is here.