From the failed objectives file…

It's really somewhat astonishing how poorly our training mission in Iraq has gone.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The only Iraqi battalion capable of fighting without U.S. support has been downgraded to a level requiring them to fight with American troops backing them up, the Pentagon said Friday.

The battalion, made up of 700 to 800 Iraqi Army soldiers, has repeatedly been offered by the U.S. as an example of the growing independence of the Iraqi military...

That's why we're there, right? To train Iraqis and withdraw?

Or at least that's what Preznit Theytandupwestanddown keeps telling us.

But if that's why we're there, the why can't they field a single independent battalion in an environment that demands brigades, perhaps divisions, for any hope of real pacification?

Are the trainers incompetent, or is the President a liar?

Both, of course, is a valid choice, but I can't help sense some kind of designed relationship of dependency between our military and theirs, one that will require years more of occupation and support.

Glenn Greenwald writes a powerful defense of the case for responsibility…

We have an ethical responsibility to do what we can -- if there is anything -- to help Iraq regain some semblance of stability and peace. We have no right to simply leave the country engulfed by a civil war and drowning in anarchy because we grew tired of our little project or changed our minds about its morality. If we are achieving any good at all with our military occupation – or if we can achieve any good – we have the obligation to do so…

It's persuasive, unfortunately, only if you overlook the use of 'if' or, perhaps, have a more charitible view of Bushco™ than I can muster up.

It's becoming ever more clear that there isn't anything we can do, there isn't anything we're achieving. It's not at all clear that we're even trying.

It's true that we have no 'right' to leave Iraq to its fate alone, but it's equally true that we had no 'right' to be there in the first place. Rights have nothing to do with the debate, in any sense. We were wrong, and we compound that wrong daily.

We may not be the problem in Iraq today, but we are most certainly a problem, and apparently the one that must be solved before the rest can be resolved.