it's been a bad day, please don't take our picture

16 Americans were killed in Iraq on Sunday when their helicopter was attacked. The helicopter was carrying soldiers on their way to “rest and recuperation” leave. This makes it the greatest single-day loss of American life since President Bush declared the end of major combat operations on May 1st. In Washington, those 16 American lives carry political spin potential. Suddenly they are a “test of our resolve”.
We’re between a rock and a hard place in Iraq. Maybe there was no plan for life after war, but can we just leave when so much is at stake?
I wonder if a definite plan of troop withdrawal would be wise; suppose that we have such a plan but it is a strategic decision we’ve made not to disclose this information. Bush takes the hit in polls but gets reelection victory after raising record-setting campaign money from allied voting blocks and new Wall Street friends. Politics have been stranger.
Is it an option to beef up the numbers of our troops in Iraq? The kind of democracy we have envisioned for Iraq will not happen overnight. So if we plan to stay for a couple of years, assign more resource to that project.
Long term, the US will say that it made this great sacrifice to help its fellow man and to rid the world of a nuclear-armed madman. Are we Americans going to be the only ones who believe that?