It’s easy to understand President Bush’s stand on the war in Iraq. He says: Let’s fight it out until we win.

It’s also easy to understand the anti-war Democrats’ stand. They say: The war is wrong. Let’s get out. Now.

But Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s stand is puzzling. She says: The war is wrong. But let’s stay in two more years. Isn’t that like saying abusing your wife is wrong – and you should stop in two years? Logically, it doesn’t seem to make any sense. But politics has a logic all its own.

Speaker Pelosi rode a tide of anti-war sentiment into office, but she knows while pulling out of Iraq is popular now it may unpopular once we see the consequences of defeat – like the slaughter of our allies in Baghdad. In that light pulling out of Iraq in two years – just before the election in the fall of 2008 – makes sense. Democrats get credit for ending the war before the election. But they won’t have to face the consequences until after.

It’s a triumph of politics over logic.

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