The Iraq debate

This exchange between Lindsey Graham, John McCain’s right-hand man, and Jim Webb, Ronald Reagan’s navy secretary who is now an anti-war Democrat, gives you a good idea of how heated the Iraq debate is now getting in the States. Senators, who pride themselves on their Roman reserve, don’t squabble like this in public.

The debate is going to become bitterer still before General Petraeus’s delivers his make or break update to Congress on the war in September. In reality, we’ll be faced with the same dilemma then that we are now. Leave—and resign ourselves to the genocidal civil war that will surely follow and the boost that Iran and al Qaeda will receive from the Coalition’s humiliation. Or, stay—and risk breaking the military and severely restrict our freedom of action to do anything else in the world. 

(The complete transcript is here and the whole show is available from the Meet the Press site)