Tony 'splained to the Stenography Corps what would happen if extremist Ned Lamont gets his way and we withdraw from Iraq:

First, let's think about Iraq. One of the positions is that we need to leave Iraq -- we need to do it on a timetable, and we need to do it soon. It's worth walking through the consequences of that position. First, simply to walk away on a timetable without examining the conditions on the ground and without making sure that you have the ability for the Iraqis to stand up and also assert sovereignty over their territory and have a freestanding democracy would create a power vacuum and encourage terrorists not only in Iraq, but throughout the region and throughout the world that one of the problems that often besets democracies, which is impatience in hard times, in fact serves as a motivation for terror groups. Osama bin Laden some years ago said that one of the keys is that if you simply stay at terror long enough, the West is too weak, he said the Americans were too weak, and would stand down.

The second consequence would be, it would create a failed state in the heart of the Middle East with the second largest oil reserves in the world. Now if you think about what happened in Afghanistan, Afghanistan, a nation with far fewer resources, when it was able to serve as a terrorist training and staging ground, was able to do considerable violence to the United States and pose a threat to the rest of the world.

Number three, another consequence would be that it would inflict incredible damage on America's credibility. We have made it clear, and this President has made it clear, that we're in it to make sure that the people of Iraq do in fact have the opportunity to live free and in a democracy, and to walk away from that vow would send not only a sign of weakness, but also of American unreliability, and it would enable forces of oppression and totalitarianism to rise again within Iraq and elsewhere.

A white flag, in short, means a white flag in the war on terror.

Translation:

1. We made a mess in Iraq and we can't leave before we clean it up.

2. We can never admit that we made a mess that is so bad that it is beyond cleaning up, because then we would have a mess in Iraq that would not ever be cleaned up, while if we don't admit it, we can always take the position that someday it will be cleaned up.

3. We must preserve our credibility at all costs, even if that means continuing to lie in order to do so.

4. DEMS WANT TO CUT AND RUN!!!  

BTW: Here is a picture of a cat.