I regard the "anti-war" protesters as misguided and irrelevent. The absolute worst thing we can do is bring our troops home. Like it or not, we have a moral obligation to restore peace and security in Iraq. Its going cost both American lives and dollars to do it.

My complaint about Iraq lies not with what we must do, but with what we have done. Its was a terrible mistake to ignore the U.N. and conduct a pre-emptive war on the basis of an utterly failed intelligence. Unless the damage is repaired, this action will not serve our long term interests as American citizens.

I personally do not have confidence that the Bush administration knows what its doing. And, I certainly can't trust a word that comes out of Mr. Bush's mouth. When I vote next year, I will hold he and his administration responsible for the debacle they have given us.

But none of that argues we can, nor should pull out of Iraq. At this point, we are stuck. Our only clear choice is to succeed. To fail at this would bear an ever greater price.