10 American soldiers died today

I'm somewhat shaken already, and now this news:

Ten U.S. military personnel were killed in four separate events Wednesday in Iraq, American officials said.

The military confirmed that the 10 Americans had died but gave no further details.

"Casualty announcements will follow when appropriate. Our thoughts and prayers go out to those family members who have lost loved ones today," U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Christopher Garver said in a statement.

But don't worry, the fine men of Washington are finding a bipartisan consensus so they don't have to admit that those evil liberal hippies were right.

This piece by Digby gets at the heart of why we went over there more than anything I've read.

It's similar to what happens when a wild animal like a bear comes down out of the hills and mauls someone. Back in the day they used to round up a posse (now they call in the professionals) grab their guns and go out to kill the bear. It doesn't really matter which bear just that the defenders of civilization can bring home a bear carcass and show everyone that if a bear kills one of them they are going to get revenge -- preferably by killing one that was even bigger than the one that did the killing. They always say that it was because the bear was dangerous and it had developed a taste for human blood or something like that. (The people don't ever really know if the dead bear is the one, do they?) The purpose isn't really to kill the bear that did the deed. And it isn't as Kissinger says, to show the other bears that they will be killed if they do this again. It's to quell their own fear by proving to themselves that they are not helpless.

George W. Bush was very, very frightened after 9/11 and for a variety of motivations his administration persuaded him that killing the Iraq bear would make him feel better. The public's support or lack of support was irrelevant.

We need the courage to stand up and not destroy ourselves and our military and our society by continuing to put young men and women into the meat grinder. We're beyond any conceivable military solution to this mess. The region is already in chaos, we don't have to wonder what that would look like if we left. We broke Iraq and those people will now suffer the consequences at our hands. Diplomacy and training are nice, but we need to withdraw responsibly and stop making a bad situation worse, and if Tom Vilsack keeps saying it this clearly and honestly I may have to pay more attention to him.