Ryan Crocker, the U.S. Ambassador in Iraq, is a 36-year career diplomat who has served under seven administrations in Iran, Syria, Kuwait, Afghanistan, Lebanon and Pakistan. He's no partisan gunslinger. So it's worth listening to his views as Congressional Democrats and a growing number of Republicans press for a precipitous withdrawal from Iraq on the excuse that the Iraqi government hasn't met a set of political "benchmarks."
The Congresscritters don't need evidence to run. They've been pre-defeated since before March 2003, and have been simply looking for reasons to justify the defeat on the battlefield that they think we richly deserve and which will give them the objective for the only war they will fight ruthlessly--the White House.
