That should tell you that everything you’ve been hearing from the major channels is either inaccurate, half-truths or out-right deception. Come on, where’s the critical thinking?

I temper WaPo, the NYTimes, and NPR with Michael Totten and Bill Roggio.

Iraq is improving slowly but surely. There’s definitely some serious problems, but they’re being dealt with successfully so far. And the Iraqi military and police are really beginning to demonstrate competence as is their government at most levels. They’re not up to standards we’d expect of american troops or government, but they’re still encouraging. And though they’re still not ready to go it alone, we’re starting to see an end to this fiasco.

why, if our highest priority targets are in Afghanistan, that we’re not trying to destroy them.

Because they are actually in Pakistan.

Obviously Justin, you aren’t paying attention.

al Qaeda is all but destroyed in Iraq, but they are not the only force attempting to destabilize the country… or have you just been purposefully ignoring Iran and Syria’s meddling? Part of our job in Iraq is to help rebuild their society and provide them with a measure of security. As we destroyed their previous society, it is our moral obligation to do so.

It is also a practical imperative from a national security standpoint, as most security experts from within our own nation, our allies, our enemies and even within Barack Obama’s own foreign policy team recognize that the headlong withdrawal favored by many liberals is likely to lead to a failed state and a wider regional war which would cause extreme uncertainty regarding oil supplies coming from the Persian Gulf.

You think our current economic correction is serious? Imagine the global ripple effect of a full-fledged “tanker war” that has Iran shooting across the Persian Gulf at Saudi Arabia while oil fields in Iraq and Kuwait burn. That is the scenario that is emerging as the consensus probability among experts if we pull out of Iraq leaving a security vacuum that Sunni and Shia neighbors will try to clumsily fill in their own national interests.

So many Democrats are so focused on pulling out of Iraq to defeat Bush that they fail to see the long term consequences for that nation, our own, and the global economy.

Perhaps it is time to start thinking beyond Jan 20, 2009, and with a tiny bit more maturity about the increasing peril your suggestions would create.