The following editorial appeared Wednesday in the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

As deadly October rolls into November, we are led to wonder, as we hope many Americans are, just when the lives and well-being of American troops will count for something in the discussion about Iraq. The month just ended was the most deadly for Americans since January 2005. And for what?

Sen. Elizabeth Dole, R-N.C., spoke at the National Press Club last week on Republican Senate prospects in the coming election; she heads the GOP’s Senate campaign committee. On Iraq, she warned, ominously, that if the United States withdraws now, Iran and Syria will move into Iraq.

So what, we would have asked, is your point? The U.S. misadventure in Iraq has been so thoroughly botched by the Bush administration that, sooner or later, Iran and Syria most likely will get to involve themselves in Iraq no matter what. How does “staying the course” accomplish anything beyond getting more Americans, and Iraqis, killed?

Moreover, follow the thought a bit further: Who says other countries in the region would let Syria and Iran, or anyone else, turn Iraq into a threatening puppet state? Surely Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and a few others would have something to say about that. Can Dole demonstrate that a U.S. pullout from Iraq would create a situation likely to require future American military action and future American deaths?

That, you see, should be the criterion: Pull U.S. troops out of Iraq as soon as possible unless such action would almost certainly set in motion events requiring future American military deployment elsewhere. Barring that, nothing in Iraq – certainly not American prestige, of which there is little left – justifies enduring more and more months of the carnage that October brought.

We hold dear the lives of American men and women in uniform. They are not a tool to be used at Washington’s whim. They are not a set piece in a strategic game. They are our flesh and blood, our brothers and sisters. They have pledged to defend our country and to obey our leaders. They will perform splendidly in whatever role they are assigned. But they should be asked to risk their lives only when our nation’s security itself is at risk.

Iraq does not qualify; it never did.