Part 8 of a retrospective series on why 1) the Iraq war was a bad idea, and 2) Jonah Goldberg is a putz.

Once again, Goldberg defines the debate and relies on good intentions.

This is truly one of the goofiest paragraphs of Goldberg's column:

According to the goofy parameters of the current debate, I'm now supposed to call for withdrawing from Iraq. If it was a mistake to go in, we should get out, some argue. But this is unpersuasive. A doctor will warn that if you see a man stabbed in the chest, you shouldn't rush to pull the knife out. We are in Iraq for good reasons and for reasons that were well-intentioned but wrong. But we are there.

(emphasis added). I remind the reader that Goldberg is the one who has set the parameters of his debate. Once again, he is defining the parameters in inflexible extremes--something that will come back to bite him in the ass, as I will show in the last post of this series.

If we should get out, it is not because it was a mistake to go in. If we should get out, it will be because it is a mistake to stay. How about looking at that possibility? Seemingly, Goldberg won't even consider that. We should also look at what would be good results and then determine whether our continued presence is needed to achieve those results, and if so, how that presence should be structured and executed. We should also look at possible negative consequences to pulling out now. In other words, this "debate" is not limited only to stay or completely get out, and yet that is how Goldberg defines it.

And just what is Goldberg trying to say with his "man stabbed in the chest" analogy? Is he saying that by going to war we put a knife in Iraq and leaving it in is the way to keep Iraq alive? I keep having this vision of the Comic Book Guy from "The Simpsons" saying "Worst analogy ever."

And then with the good intentions again. So I guess Goldberg would consider it O.K. if one intended to do a good deed for someone while plunging a blade into that person's chest. And then I guess Goldberg would consider it helpful to then twist the knife.

Up next: Iraq as the central front in the war on terror.