President Bush on Thursday invited to the White House and asked the advice of more than a dozen former secretaries of state and defense, including those from Democratic administrations.
Some of them, such as Madeleine Albright, secretary of State under President Clinton, and Robert McNamara, presidents Kennedy and Johnson's secretary of defense during the Vietnam War, had been harsh critics of Bush administration policies, particularly regarding Iraq.
They said they believe the president was wrong to take the nation to war when he did to topple Saddam Hussein.
They also say his current war policies are wrong-headed and that he should have a clearly defined exit plan.
Yet despite sharp disagreements on strategy and tactics, Albright, McNamara and all the other former high Cabinet officials of both political parties who were there reportedly agreed on one thing. What matters now isn't how or why we got into the war, but how to get out of it in a way that leaves Iraq secure and free.
In other words, however ill-conceived some of them feel the original mission was, they now all agree it must succeed; failure would be catastrophic. Therefore, to cut and run - or its phony euphemism, to "redeploy" outside of Iraq - is not an option.
We wonder if Barbara Boxer, Howard Dean, Nancy Pelosi, John Murtha and other leftists got the message.
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