Excellent column by Paul Krugman yesterday. As usual, well reasoned, many good points.

If we exit Iraq, will the country inevitably become the next Afghanistan? Krugman says not necessarily and that the alternative (staying and fighting) could be worse. Iraq is the #1 breeding ground for new terrorists so in many ways it's already the new Afghanistan -- only we continue to see many U.S. soldiers killed in the process. As Krugman states,

It's far more likely that if the Iraqi government knew that our support had an expiration date, it would both look to its own defenses and, more important, try harder to find a political solution to the insurgency.

The Iraq that emerges once U.S. forces are gone won't bear much resemblance to the free-market, pro-American, Israel-friendly democracy the neocons promised. But it will pose less of a terrorist threat than the Iraq we have now.

In addition, his larger point is well taken: Bush created a terrorist breeding ground (via lies and deception) and now we're forced into this conundrum of, as The Clash once said, "Should I Stay Or Should I Go Now?" In effect, Bush and his twisted neocons have successfully blackmailed our country.

Happy 4th!