I read much of what you read, and in addition, I read things from sources that, unlike yours, would not give their left testicle to see Bush and Iraq go down in flames.

The current upsurge in violence in Iraq is timed, and designed specifically to play the American public like a violin. The buttons on people like you are large, and lit in neon, and they know how to push them. You think the rash of beheadings is a coincidence? That there is no politics in this? Listen to the insurgents' statements. You think they ever used the word "quagmire" before now?

Do you think the proper response when things get rougher is to quit? Is this a general foreign policy philosophy, or does it only apply to specific cases?

The insurgents probably wish the U.N. was in charge in Iraq. They ran shrieking like little girls after a single attack.