Between Iraq and a Hard Place

Premise A:

Back from Iraq [Rich Lowry]

I'm back from a brief trip to Iraq[... W]hat we need for this ultimately to work—some form of Sunni-Shia reconciliation—is not entirely under our control. The trip was an education and made me realize just how much I—and most other commentators here at home—don't know about Iraq.

10/08 04:57 PM

Premise B:

RECONCILIATION IN IRAQ....Joshua Partlow reports that Iraqi leaders have given up on even the possibility of political reconciliation:

..."I don't think there is something called reconciliation, and there will be no reconciliation as such," said Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih, a Kurd. "To me, it is a very inaccurate term. This is a struggle about power."

Humam Hamoudi, a prominent Shiite cleric and parliament member, said any future reconciliation would emerge naturally from an efficient, fair government, not through short-term political engineering among Sunnis and Shiites.

If reconciliation depends on the emergence of efficient, fair government in Iraq, that's pretty much all she wrote. It's time to pack up and go home.

Conclusion: (Go ahead and reach your own conclusion. Republicans do it all the time.)