I Like This Idea

Via Instapundit and Bill Hobbs, I came across this ElephantBiz post that has a thought I find very appealing-- a Presidential run by Fred Thompson.

Former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson, a lawyer and actor who currently plays District Attorney Arthur Branch on Law & Order, is now doing radio commentary on the Paul Harvey show...
Might Thompson be prepping for a presidential run? He says he isn't running, but perhaps he is, unconventionally, courting Republican conservatives in case that when the field clears later this year it becomes obvious that, of the three likely to still be in the race, neither Arizona Sen. John McCain nor former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani has a chance at the conservative vote, while former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's support among social conservatives is brittle and based less on Romney than on their distaste for the other two. In that scenario, a late entry by Thompson could rapidly erode Romney's support and likely take down McCain as well as Thompson does well with moderates and independents.

He quotes from a recent commentary by Thompson, that hits a chord that resonates with my view on the situation in Iraq:

Is it really in our country’s best interest to signal to the enemy that they probably only have to wait us out a little longer because congressional determination to defeat them is crumbling? Doesn’t such a resolution further diminish our chances for success at the very time our soldiers are preparing to go into battle?

Yes, it does, and not just for the coming battles in this war, but it further diminishes our chances for success for any future wars in which we end up engaged. I believe this is one goal of the most ardent anti-war advocates; they are more than comfortable with the idea of contributing to our defeat if it causes us to avoid war at all costs in the future. To be honest, part of me understands that view. War should be avoided-- but not at all costs. Rather, it should be avoided as much as is practical. All costs includes costs that are too great to bear. It was too high a cost to allow Saddam to continue to defy the U.N. resolutions. Maybe he did not have WMD (and maybe he did and they ended up in Syria or elsewhere), but he was required to prove to the U.N. that he had destroyed what he had previously had and he refused to do this. It was too high a cost to bear to hope for the best. Now, he is gone. It is too high a cost to bear to hope that all turns out for the best if we leave Iraq for the Sunnis and Shi'ites to battle over, with Al-Qaeda and Iran meddling and gaining traction as well. We have to win, and steps that make it harder for us to win are a tremendous mistake.