Iraq – What’s It Good For?

In a Newsweek interview with Merle Haggard, he’s asked about the Dixie Chicks:

I don’t really understand it. I don’t know what’s new about girls not liking war, first of all. And second of all, they have a right to say what they want to. Third, I’m an American, and I’ll back everything they say. I’m not for the war in Iraq because I don’t believe they’ve explained why they’re doing it.

Later in the interview, Mr. Haggard says his wife doesn’t want him to write political songs because they’ll send the IRS after him, and he thinks she’s probably right.

A second Newsweek article covers Maliki’s Master Plan which includes a timetable for US withdrawal from Iraq. The new head of the Iraqi government seems to believe that Iraqis won’t believe they have a government while the country is occupied by foreign troops.

Howard Dean thinks Democrats may disagree on the exact process, they agree on the need to withdraw US forces.

Karen wonders what Andrew Sullivan thinks the value of “staying the course” really is. She wants to know what plan for winning the war exists, that makes staying in Iraq necessary.

A San Francisco Chronicle article tells us what the polls say:

[Democratic Wisconsin Senator Russ] Feingold said his proposal’s lopsided defeat didn’t trouble him.

“We understand we aren’t going to get a majority. We also understand we represent the opinion of the majority of the American people.”

That contention is supported by the latest poll from the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press, which showed 52 percent of those surveyed in June said the United States should set a withdrawal timetable, compared with 42 percent who opposed a timetable.

Apparently the only groups that want the US to remain in Iraq are the White House and its lap dogs, and they aren’t sure why we should stay, except it might help in the 2006 elections.