‘Cut and run,’ or responsible strategy?

When Rep. John Murtha of Pennsylvania (D) presented his proposal for a six-month staged withdrawal from Iraq, a Republican representative from Ohio, Jean Schmidt, called him a “coward.” An uproar arose on the House floor, and she was forced to retract her statement.

But is withdrawal really a sign of weakness, or is it the best strategy to pursue at this point? Since Bush won election just one year ago, support for the Iraq war has waned. And though a just war should continue as long as it needs to take to finish a defined objective, so far President Bush has insisted on a “stay the course” strategy, with no end date in mind. This is still the case even after his latest speech given Wednesday at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis.

The way I see it is this. In the past I agreed with Bush’s strategy. As much as I had disagreed with the decision to invade, I believed that leaving too soon would make things worse. We could not afford to have a failed state in Iraq that could become a new breeding ground for terrorists,