JAMES JOYNER, a reasonable righty if ever there was one, has this to say about Ralph Peters' latest NY Post column:

Some of the piece is over-the-top in its analysis of the domestic politics of the debate. But he's right about this much: Pulling out of Iraq under the present circumstances would be devastating in our battle against the jihadists.

As is so often the case, I agree with James on the merits: a pullout under the present circumstances would be devastating. But here's the thing. Simply noting that "some of the piece is over-the-top" is not good enough when the nation is at war, and a major American columnist has, in essence, just called a sizable percentage of the American people traitors. At that point, I'm afraid, nothing less than a full-throated denunciation will do, and I wish James had provided one.

As we've noted practically ad nauseum 'round these parts in recent days, the neo-McCarthyism that has become so fashionable in certain conservative circles of late is not helping the president's (or, for that matter, the nation's) cause one damned bit. In fact, it's making it almost impossible for centrist Democrats like me to continue to defend any aspect of our current Iraq policy in good conscience. And if this war loses what little support it still has outside of the the president's conservative base, it's going to fail, and fail badly.

So the real question for war supporters is this: who's actually being unpatriotic here? The folks who are expressing an honest, if in my view mistaken, desire to get out of Iraq right now? Or the angry demagogues whose irresponsible charges will ultimately so divide the country that the war effort becomes completely unsustainable?

You make the call.