It’s starting to sound a lot like 2005 again.
Remember 2005? Iraq was a big, fat mess. American troops were dying at an alarming rate. Iraqi civilians were dying at an alarming-er rate (not that many Americans gave that much thought). The insurgents seemed to be gaining the upper hand. And there was a growing call from left-of-center pundits, bloggers and activists (joined by a small handful of their right-of-center counterparts) that we should get out of Iraq. Eventually, the non-blogging Americans joined in the call, and by the following November, a whole bunch of Republicans were swept from office by Democrats promising to stop the madness in Iraq. (That clearly worked out well.)
Here in late 2009, I’m starting to see a lot of the same things said about Afghanistan that I was seeing about Iraq back in 2005. Plenty of left–of–center types are starting to put out feelers about withdrawing. Military officials are outlining new strategies for moving forward. And a handful of right-0f-center types are joining the call. And so history repeats itself.
But should it?