Juan and Brit battle it out again. At subject is the Iraqification of the war, and this segment of the Panel starts out with Sen. Clinton telling Gen. Abizaid that hope is not a strategy, to which Gen. Abizaid countered that neither was despair; and that’s what he felt in Washington.

Well, nobody is happy with the way things are going in Iraq, but honestly folks…is cut-and-run the answer? Bill Kristol talks about how the Iraqification plan won’t work, but not for the reasons you think. He thinks it won’t work because the only way it would work is if we have the will to stay. And obviously, many Americans don’t.

Partial transcript:

Brit: This policy of trying to help protect where needed while building them up may be the only policy that makes any sense.

Juan: ..remember, we were going to go in, we’re going to promote Democracy…

Brit: Excuse me Juan, I’m making the point… no, exactly the opposite point if you’ll just listen to me…

Juan: What’s the point?

Brit: …which is, that a Democratic Iraq has to defend itself. It cannot be a successful, people-driven Democracy while it’s depending on an external force to protect it. And this is what, this is what the whole idea is, is to get Iraq into a position where it can police itself, defend itself, and have confidence in its own institutions.

Juan: I think our interests, as Americans, is to simply say “listen, you may not be able to defend yourself, but we’ll defend you to the extent that we don’t want terrorists using you as a training ground, and we’ll stop that.” That’s the American interest. What you want to do in terms of sectarian violence, Democracy, that’s up to you.

Brit: (heavy sigh)

It’s obvious there’s an extreme difference of opinions from each side of the aisle. And for the left side of the aisle? I know both of us want to win, but a precipitous pull-out is not a winning strategy.

Watch the panel here.