It's Time to Get Out of Iraq

The news from Iraq just gets worse and worse:

BAGHDAD — Iraqi leaders are appealing for calm after Sunni insurgents blew up five car bombs — three of them homicide attacks — in Baghdad's Shiite Sadr City slum Thursday, killing at least 161 and wounding 257 in an act of carnage that sent the U.S. ambassador racing to meet with Iraqi leaders and moved Iraq a step closer to all-out civil war.

Shiite mortar teams quickly retaliated, firing 10 shells at Sunni Islam's most important shrine in Baghdad, badly damaging the revered Abu Hanifa mosque and killing one person. Eight more mortar rounds slammed to earth near the west Baghdad headquarters of the Association of Muslim Scholars, the top Sunni Muslim organization in Iraq. Nearby houses were set on fire but there were no immediate reports of casualties.

Two other mortar barrages on Sunni neighborhoods in west Baghdad killed nine and wounded three, police said late Thursday.

The argument for staying in Iraq generally revolves around the notion that if we pull out the country will descend into chaos. At this point, I'm not sure it matters whether we stay or leave, the result will still be chaos. The only difference is we won't be seeing our people killed.

We tried and succeeded in our effort to oust Saddam, but it's becoming increasingly clear that the Iraqi people simply don't have it in them to live in a stable democracy. They love killing each other more than they love peace, and if they're bound and determined to continue the violence, it's better they do it without us around to get caught in the crossfire.

Here's your chance, Dems, commence cutting and running.