Feedback Loop Of Death

From WaPo, via Andrew Sullivan:

"Setting a date would mean that the 221 soldiers I've lost this year, that their lives will have been lost in vain," said Army Maj. Gen. William Webster, whose 3rd Infantry Division is responsible for security in three-fourths of Iraq's capital.

No, no, no. As our casualties mount, this deceptively appealing meme threatens to gain acceptance through sheer repetition. Listen, "setting a date" may indeed be inadvisable for any number of reasons. But citing the sacrifice already made is specious and perverse, and it betrays a mindless, bankrupt strategy that has morphed into a feedback loop of never-ending death. Those who argue against a timetable in Iraq based on past losses are themselves ignoring the sacrifice of almost 60,000 troops in Vietnam, where we learned the danger of the "we must honor the sacrifice already made" circularity. Don't we owe more to the memory of those troops and to our men and women currently in uniform? For those who would say no, please explain this: our military involvement in Somalia defined "cut and run." Does that somehow diminish the service or the sacrifice of those who fought and died in the alleys of Mogadishu? Aren't they---the "Blackhawk Down" boys---among the most celebrated of heroes in our military history? Sacrifice stands on its own. Neither its validity nor its honor depends on continued losses.

This is a time to think, analyze, criticize and---yes, when necessary---doubt. It is not a time to reach reflexively for the same type of shallow, blind-faith, false-populist mantras that got us into this mess in the first place. If we continue to do so, we guarantee that as time goes by many more such mantras will become necessary.