Eye Catching Title Goes Here

It was the wrong war.  That doesn't matter.  We are there now.  Well, it does matter.  My friends, this is going to be a short diary.  Because, I'm going to distill this entire war thing down to its fundamental core.  

Jim:
The Iraq war was a bad idea.  It was the wrong thing to do.

John:
The intelligence at the time said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and was a threat.

Jim:
John, that was a weak argument a few years ago.  We know know that isn't the case.  The evidence was there.  Too many in power just chose to ignore the evidence.  We can talk about their motivations another time.

John:
Okay, but we are there now.  We have to win and leave with dignity.  I support the troops and I don't want to see their efforts count for nothing.

Jim:
Let me tell you a story John.  My company was hiring an for an executive position once and we identified a person who we liked.  Several of the other executives flew to London to meet with the candidate.  The candidate traveled to our home office.  Months had gone by.  Everyone was sure this was the guy.  It was coming down the final hour.  And then things changed.

John:
Then what happened?

Jim:
As the final negotiations were coming to a close, the candidate started to push for more.  He wanted more perks beyond what had been offered.

John:
Well, That's to be expected isn't it?

Jim:
Sure.  It is to be expected.  But without going into details, I'll tell you he was pushing way too far.

John:
So how did it turn out?

Jim:
We eventually decided to abandon the candidate.

John:
After all that?

Jim:
We decided that it was better to know when to quit.  It's better to know when to cut our losses.

John:
So you're saying that we should get out.

Jim:
Yes.  And the reason I'm saying that is because the reason we went to war was wrong.  

John:
You keep going back the reason.

Jim:
This war is all about trying to achieve something.  There was a goal.  And if the reason was wrong, why would we keep trying to go there.  Remember my story.  If we realize that we made a bad choice, the right thing to do is to abandon that choice.

John:
I think I am understanding what you are saying.  Let me see if I can explain it in my own terms.  I decide to builds a house near to a beach.  And as construction goes forward, I find that the location is bad and it isn't a good place to build a house.  I could decide to do various things to get the house completed anyway.  But the better thing is probably to abandon the project.  I'm not saying that I agree with you are far as the war is concerned but I think that is what you are saying.

Jim:
You seem to get it.  Let's not forget that the difference between your story and the war in Iraq is that in Iraq, people are dying.  Making it all the more urgent that something be done.

John:
I still support my president.

Jim:
Well, I can't argue that.  It's your prerogative to support anyone you like. In my view leaders will make mistakes.  And they should be held accountable.  If they admitted that it was a mistake, then we could get agreement that our new goal was to try to correct the mistake.