Chicago's Mayor Daley "We just can't leave the Middle East"

This is not why I chose Richard M. Daley as last month's "Biggest Winner" as my choice in Eric Zorn's November in Review column.

However, he made a lot of sense yesterday about Iraq. Daley, who son is an enlisted man in the Army, spoke about the war yesterday.

From the Chicago Sun-Times:

"We can't just leave the Middle East . . . Let's forget about the Middle East. Just walk away. I don't think anybody wants that. What I think we're trying to do -- some way -- is trying to slowly allow Iraq to take full control of their country," Daley said.

A history buff, Daley drew a comparison between the fight for democracy in Iraq and three earlier conflicts that also centered around a quest for freedom: the Revolutionary War, the Civil War and World War II.

"No one likes war because it's the death of someone's son or daughter, father, mother or son. . . . No one was for the Revolutionary War. . . . Maybe today they would doubt the Civil War -- whether or not slavery was worth fighting for. I think it was. Lincoln was right to fight slavery. No one likes war. But those people went to war at that time for an emotional issue about slavery. Were they wrong? Were people wrong when they fought Hitler? He didn't do anything against us. He didn't invade the United States."

Daley advised his fellow Democrats to stop being one-note Charlies, reading the declining poll numbers of President Bush and becoming bolder and bolder in their opposition to the Iraq War with every passing day.

Daley did not flat out say he supported the war. But he made a lot of sense.