I will temporarily suspend my intention to stay away from political posts to make this one comment because I sincerely believe it to be non-ideological, i.e., I have heard commentators on both left and right voice similar opinions, and also because I don't think I have ever declared my position on the war unambiguously, and I feel you all have the right to know that.

I don't believe we have any right to unilaterally occupying other countries, no matter how evil their leaders are or how oppressed their people are. I do believe we (including myself) felt we were justified in invading Iraq because we sincerely felt they were secretly preparing weapons to be used against us and flaunting attempts by the international community to get at the truth. We also felt they were collaborating actively with Al-Quaeda. This turned out to be false, but I don't think we deliberately concocted the story to give us an excuse to invade. At least, I hope not. At any rate, at that time, I supported the invasion completely.

After we found out the truth about WMDs and the rest, we should have immediately announced our intention to leave after a decent interval, and invited international assistance in determining the length of that interval. We have since squandered several good opportunities to withdraw honorably: the failure to locate WMDs, the capture of Saddam, the elections, the formation of the interim government, I could go on.

As for the evil of the Saddam regime or of our current opponents, it is undeniable, but irrelevant. You can't pick a fight with a stranger and then complain when he fights dirty. And from a purely practical and cynical point of view, our opponents WANT us to bleed slowly to death in IRAQ, it serves their purposes. Why should we accomodate them?

We need to get out now, and if Iraq and the mideast erupt into conflict and chaos, then so be it. Again, from a purely practical and cynical point of view, as long as they are fighting each other they will not be able to threaten us and our allies. After the dust settles, we will be faced with at most one opponent, and we have everything we need to deal with one, clearly identified and localized opponent. And this time he'll know we are ready to do so.

I encourage comment and discussion on my remarks, but I will not participate because I have made no statements of fact here which can be challenged, I have merely expressed my admittedly subjective opinion. I doubt if anyone is going to change it, and I'm tired of hearing about it. So flame away.