Inasmuch as you not only associate, but lump, all non-Bush, non-Republican, non-neo con policies as leftist then I certainly agree with you. Just as I agree with you that the Iraqi people will get the government they deserve. (You didn't actually say that, it was inferred from you above post) What you did say had to do with the Iraqiis could end the violence if they wanted to end it by giving up the insurgents. This correct.

What you fail to recognize, is that many of these people agree with the insurgents. Others that don't agree probably fear for the very lives and those of their families. If you had a realistic bone in your body you could recognize these are people that would like to survive and not be living their lives in a state of conflict beyond their control. When you say they could end it, the answer is riiiiiighttt. If you will stop and look around you, you will see we live in a nation with more gang members than members of the US military. These gangs rape, murder, exhort, bomb, subvert authority, corrupt officials and exist on soley illegal activities. And if your contention was correct, the American public should be expected to stop this gang activity and put a stop to the drug trade by turning in these gangsters, testifying against them, and seeing them locked up.

I don't see this happening, do you? People in the mass value their own survival. They even take these concerns in this country to ridiculous extremes; they re-elected George Bush as the "War Time president."

Publius