Turning No Corners

By E. J. Dionne Jr.
Washington Post
Friday, April 11, 2008

The problem with the debate over our future course in Iraq is that the two sides are not even talking about the same things.

For supporters of the war, the primary issue is Iraq itself and what will happen if we leave. For the war's opponents, the focus is on how the conflict in Iraq is sapping our energies, weakening our military and diverting our attention from our interests elsewhere in the world.

The bottom line of the testimony this week from Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker is that, even after the surge, what gains have been made in Iraq are, as Petraeus put it, "fragile and reversible." For the administration's friends, this can only mean that we need to stay the course. President Bush endorsed that approach yesterday, meaning that 140,000 or so troops are likely to still be in Iraq when he leaves office.

But the administration's critics (and even some sympathizers) see the current policy as the equivalent of constructing an expensive road, under hazardous conditions, without being able to explain where the road will lead. The road becomes an end in itself. The point is to keep building it in the hope that it will eventually arrive at some lovely destination.

Such a project can go on only so long before someone points out the obvious, which is what Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) did during the hearings: "I think people want a sense of what the end is going to look like."

(Continued here.)