EVEN STRONG CONSERVATIVES CAN HAVE A CHANGE OF HEART ON IRAQ

I enjoy reading the Panama City-based blog Ironknee. Blogmaster Ed Deluzain usually has some very thoughtful posts, especially when it comes to his Catholic faith.

Today Ed notes that he had dinner this evening with a retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel, who he described as "ultraconservative until recently". He has now come to the belief that American troops should be pulled out of Iraq now.

I probably would not go quite that far, but it is time to begin serious planning on reducing the number of military personnel there. To simply pull up and run now would 1) almost surely spark civil/religious war, and 2) destabilize the region even more than it already is now. I like what Senator Russ Feingold (D - WI) said Sunday on Meet the Press, where he opined that "...it was time to at least put on the table an idea, get the discussion going, break the taboo and say, 'Look, let's see if we can remove the troops after we succeed with a series of steps by the end of December 2006. Let's see if we can have a target date that will work'."

Interesting to know that even an "ultraconservative" military man can change his belief...