I don't hear it often stated so plainly.
Iraq is now our responsibility, at least for a time.
Ethically, it's somewhat like taking in an injured animal: once you take it in, you have to do your best to get it back on its feet. Its life is in your hands. You may no longer walk away and keep your honor.
So here we are in Iraq. Given our responsibilities, all the arguments about what we should/shouldn't have done, or who did/didn't do or say what, are not terribly important.
What is important is what we're going to do about this responsibility we've taken on.
Adults take care of their responsibilities. Children make excuses, whine, call names, and act irresponsibly.
That's how you tell the difference.
We need to be grown-ups about Iraq, and do our best.
I don't know about you, but this Wilson/Plame affair is smelling fishier and fishier to my nose. And no, I don't mean on the White House side. I mean on the side of the accusers. Too many things don't add up, or rather if you add them up in a certain plausible way, it's a very smelly piece of work indeed.
Jed Babbin has a piece over at NRO that lays it out better than I could, although Jed is careful not to connect the dots all the way. That is left as an exercise for the reader. I didn't know all the details, I just thought it smelled, from the beginning. Jed starts unwrapping that week-old fish. Check it out.
Many are up in arms because (based on what they read in(to) a very preliminary report) they claim Iraq did not pose an "immanent" or "credible" threat, based on what Dr. Kay has found so far.
Ok, let me ask you this. Let's assume it's late 2002, and let's assume that all the information in Dr. Kay's preliminary report was known to all.
Would you have felt safe, and slept soundly, if what Dr. Kay has reported on had been revealed, not after we took out Saddam, but while he was still in power?
I know I sure wouldn't.
My sincere thanks to those men and women brave enough, in America and overseas, to remove this threat.
Will al Qaeda's next big operation be an attempt to topple the government of Pakistan? This story suggests that those are the marching orders that have gone out to the cells.
Pakistan is known to have nuclear arms. Pakistan in Islamofascist hands would be a Very Bad Thing. Nuclear war between Pakistan and India (with a couple lobbed at Israel, in passing) would have to be considered quite possible.