Iraq and the horns of the dilemma

'Damned if you leave, damned if you don't', suggests Martin Samuel in the Times, writing that we must choose, like those trapped in the Twin Towers, between jumping now or being consumed by the fire: the ancient 'horns of the dilemma’. But, intellectually at least, there are other choices. You can challenge the question or refuse to choose a horn; you could decide to just wait for something to turn up or actively seek another option. While we remain on the roof in Iraq we still have choices; the alternative we know to be catastrophe. Surely it is better to preside over inevitable disintegration and be ready and able to intervene and shape the end result rather than to assume disaster and precipitate its happening. It is Iraqis that have already jumped and are in freefall. What we need now is a strategy that ignores hospital building and free elections, do what we can to ease the suffering, and try to get some bounce arranged. As for the soldiers, what are they for but for this?