Vote for Continued Occupations or vote for Saddam

Jonah Goldberg is again trotting out his idea that the US should have the Iraqis vote for whether they want US troops to remain in Iraq:

Polling suggests that they want us to go. But polling absent consequences is a form of protest. With accountability, minds may change and appreciation for the U.S. presence might grow.

If Iraqis voted “stay,” we’d have a mandate to do what’s necessary to win, and our ideals would be reaffirmed. If they voted “go,” our values would also be reaffirmed, and we could leave with honor. And pretty much everyone would have to accept democracy as the only legitimate expression of national will.

Except, as I've mentioned before, there's a problem with this ideals and values being reaffirmed business. That is, that before the US invasion, Saddam also probably would have one such an election, and for the same reasons. Heck, in a three way ballot in Iraq between Saddam, "cut and run", and "stay the course", I wouldn't be surprised if Saddam won today.

So, I'm not really sure it's such a great re-affirmation of our values that we'd win the same type of election that a guy currently facing war crimes trials and that we've been spending the last 15 years saying is the worst guy in the world would also win.