Neocon Support for the Iraq War is Vanishing

Rick Moran is a right-wing blogger and as long as I've known about his blog, Right Wing Nut House, has been an ardent supporter of the Iraq war.

Not anymore:

I've been putting off writing this post for a couple of months. Not out of any fear of blogospheric consequences although it would pain me if my honest opinion drove people away from this site. But I realize many readers who have been following my evolving position on the War in Iraq know how pessimistic I have become over the last six months about the chances of that bloody land achieving anything like a stable, democratic government. For them, it may come as no surprise that I have reached a point where I believe we must make a decision as a nation about whether we want to continue our involvement -- which would mean an increase in resources and a direct confrontation with Iran and Syria over their massive support for the terrorists and insurgents -- or whether we should pack up and go home. In other words, escalate or leave.

Why now? And why bother writing about it?

Simply put, the reason I have come to this conclusion now is that the enemies of Iraqi democracy have established a clear upper hand in the country and it is uncertain at best whether the situation can be retrieved at this point.

And the reason to write about it is equally simple; to join a growing chorus of conservatives who are becoming very critical of our involvement and try and break through the spin and myopia of the Administration which is making the situation worse by pretending that things are getting better or are not as bad as we think they are.

I don't share most of Rick's underlying assumptions (e.g., that the war is a good thing gone bad; that escalation is a viable option; that the United States could have succeeded in creating democracy in Iraq if the Arab/Muslim "enemies of democracy" had not ruined it). Nevertheless, it took guts to write this, and although it's long, his piece is worth reading in its entirety.

By the way, Rick refers in his post to 3400 Iraqi civilians killed in July alone. The link for that figure is here.