A Clear Position

Eric Alterman suggests the following clear position on Iraq:

1. President Bush misled the country and the Congress into war and has conducted it incompetently.

2. The war also turns out to have been a dangerous diversion in the war against terrorism.

3. Even though we were misled, and even though we would be better off working with our (former?) allies to conduct a truly effective global war against terrorism, in Afghanistan and at home, we have no choice but to try to clean up this mess we’ve created.

4. But we should try and do so as quickly, inexpensively and painlessly as possible, so we can begin to repair some of the damage that’s been done to our nation’s reputation and get on with the business of defending the nation with the help and cooperation of our allies, as well as freeing up the resources we need to protect our homeland.

Sounds good to me.