To get back to your original topic, stevendedalus, I believe it's called oversimplification fueled by a voyeuristic media willing to shine the spotlight on the most shrill among us and eager for domestic conflict - stuff that sells.
Take the "stay the course" vs "cut & run" argument as an example.
Setting an unconditional timetable for withdrawal, even a soft timetable, would send several messages, depending on the recipients.
To the overwhelming majority of Iraqis who yearn for the success of the fledgling government, not to mention a peaceful future, it would say, "Oops, we broke your country. Sorry 'bout that, but we don't really have the time to help you fix it. Lotsa luck, though. We'll be thinkin' of ya." That message would, imho, do more to fan the flames of anti-American sentiment in the region than any other thing we could possibly do - the resentment would be overwhelming.
To international terrorist groups, it would say, "OK, guys. You can have your propaganda victory." If you think our being there is a good recruiting tool for them, just wait until they "win" & "drive the evil satan out of Iraq." They might then succeed in establishing a theocracy out of the political rubble, not to mention a safe haven from which to operate and further destabilize the region.
To, and on behalf of, the American public, it would say, "We no longer care what happens to the countries of the Middle East. We're weary of hearing day after day in our own media about how horrible we are as a nation." The media have been polling people to death since the war began with poll after poll showing "declining support" for the war. The polls themselves are oversimplified question sets, the responses to which are then overanalyzed and trumpeted by whoever they favor as if they were fact - I just have no faith they mean anything.
Opponents of our presence in Iraq shamelessly oversimplify "stay the course" as folly (to use your term) - as if that means we're just standing around spinning our wheels, our troops nothing more than the duck targets in a county-fair shooting gallery with the terrorists collecting giant teddy bears by the boatload.
Opponents of setting a timetable shamelessly oversimplify it as "cut & run" - I freely admit that - but the reason it resonates is that it succinctly conveys the essential truth of the matter. I could live with, and in fact favor, a conditional plan for troop reductions in Iraq. But that's what we already have de facto. That's why the calls for setting a timetable are an oversimplification and are a political play to a domestic audience.
I'm speaking now of the current reality - pre-war justification arguments are moot, just in case anyone wants to pointlessly rehash any of that.
