In radical Islamic propaganda, the United States has graduated from being a mere Great Satan out to undermine Iran's ayatollahs to being depicted as a global monster responsible for virtually every crime and failing since the dawn of modern history. Meet the new Jews: the Americans.

Hoagland is looking around the world, and finding it distinctly uncomfortable for corporate friendly advocates of a rigorous American foreign policy. Tony Blair went down to Australia and went public with the same concerns.

Calling the anti-American feeling seen in parts of world politics "madness," Blair said: "The danger with America today is not that they are too much involved. The danger is they decide to pull up the drawbridge and disengage. We need them involved."

As Iraq spirals down the drain, it is beginning to become clear that the lost war in Mesopotamia is going to have some unintended ramifications. It isn't just our failure to succeed in our mission there. It's the torture, the violation of the Geneva Conventions, the violations of the UN charter, the detention camps, the rendition programs and eastern European gulags. America has lost the moral high ground to lead on human rights. America has lost its self-confidence and its belief in itself. That is the biggest casualty, with the biggest long term consequences for international order.

As we watch the Iraq War fizzle out to its ignominious end, we are also watching something more profound. The end of an era where America was seen as a land of opportunity, freedom, and a can-do ethos.

And yet, for the left, we do not see the defeat in Iraq as a defeat for America. We didn't want this war, we didn't advocate for it, our advice was ignored and mocked, our warnings discarded, our voices of moderation deemed voices of weakness and appeasement. We weren't asked to sacrifice for this war. The war was used to weaken and divide us. Our sadness isn't that the war was lost, but that the damage has been so great.

I have one last piece of advice for Bush and Blair. Rather than trying to rally American and British support for a continuation of your folly, please start trying to redefine victory. Stop telling us that a withdrawal will be a great boon to the terrorists, thereby legitimizing their claims to victory when we do withdraw. Rather, tout your limited successes. Saddam Hussein is in custody and on trial. His psychotic sons are no more. Iraq has drawn up a constitution and has held elections. We have scoured the country and assured that they have no weapons of mass destruction to pass on to terrorists. It isn't much to hang your hat on, but if you begin declaring that our goals have been largely met, you can begin justifying a withdrawal.

Whether Iraq can coalesce into a functioning state or not is no longer in our hands. We have neither the time, nor the inclination, nor the money to stick it out. And we don't have the moral authority (anymore) to expect anyone to follow our lead. However preposterous, we should declare victory and leave.