Candidate John McCain, during last night’s debate:

This strategy has succeeded. And we are winning in Iraq. And we will come home with victory and with honor. And that withdrawal is the result of every counterinsurgency that succeeds.

Richard Nixon, near the end of the conflict in Vietnam:

Throughout the years of negotiations, we have insisted on peace with honor. In my addresses to the Nation from this room of January 25 and May 8, [1972] I set forth the goals that we considered essential for peace with honor.

Why honor? Why at the end? If a war begins without it (see Tonkin, Gulf of or any statement on W.M.D. during 2002), can it truly end in grace?

Simply invoking honor…is that really enough?

My only other thought during last night’s debate: have Republicans decided to run General David Petreaus in 2016, if not sooner? Everything I’ve read about the man indicates his extraordinary ambition. McCain seemed to mention his name as a talisman throughout the debate.