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John McCain says we have a moral responsibility to stay in Iraq:

“We have incurred a moral responsibility in Iraq. It would be an unconscionable act of betrayal, a stain on our character as a great nation, if we were to walk away from the Iraqi people and consign them to the horrendous violence, ethnic cleansing and possibly genocide that would follow a reckless, irresponsible and premature withdrawal.”

I admit, this is the one object to withdrawal that I sometimes find compelling. But it doesn't stand up on close examination.

For one thing, there has been no shortage of horrendous violence and ethnic cleansing on our watch. A lot of the reduction in violence we've seen in Iraq in recent months has been attributed to the Anbar Awakening and the surge -- but there's also the untidy fact that many Baghdad neighborhoods had been ethnically cleansed by the time the surge had started. Much of the damage that can be done has been done.

Plus, there's the so-called "flypaper theory" that conservatives like to tout -- the idea being that we're fighting terrorists in Iraq so we don't have to fight them here. But there weren't really terrorists to fight in Iraq until we created a target for them there; Al Qaeda in Iraq, such as it is, is powered mainly by fighters angry about the American presence there. Given that native Sunnis in Iraq seem to hate Al Qaeda more than they hate us -- for now -- we might be able to do a moral good and reduce violence simply by getting out.

Finally, there's the whole question of whether we can really afford this enterprise. Joseph Stiglitz, of course, thinks the war will end up costing us $3 trillion. That's money that must be paid by American taxpayers and their children, and one does have to question the morality of creating a heavy financial burden to pay for a war that has made us less safe. Our moral obligations rest not just with the Iraqis, but with our own people.

In the end, Matt Yglesias probably puts it best:

One gets weary of pointing this out, but over and over again we see withdrawal plans being judged by worst-case scenarios whereas staying scenarios are judged by best-case scenarios. The truth of the matter is that no matter what we do with the American military, the course of events in Iraq will ultimately be determined by decisions made by Iraqis. If we leave, they might choose poorly with disastrous results. But that can happen if we stay, too.