It is a Quagmire

justice, humanity, liberty, and the public welfare demand that immediate efforts be made for a cessation of hostilities

So declared the Democratic party platform of 1864. The quagmire at that time was the Civil War. The Democrat's solution was the let the South keep their slaves. In the euphemism of the time, they wanted to preserve the "rights of the States unimpaired."

Today, Democrats argue that the US should abandon the fledgling democracy in Iraq and they argue using the same high-minded words like "rights" and "liberty" that were used to defend slavery.