IMO, I think the major difference in our positions, TB, is that you feel we are directly engaged with the Jihadists in Iraq and that we have them tied down there, making it difficult for them to strike us anywhere else. Furthermore, I believe you feel that our presence there is wearing them down and that eventually, even if only by attrition, we shall defeat them.

My point of view is that the Jihadist presence in Iraq is insignificant, and mostly generated by our being there. That we are not consuming their resources, we are only taking out a few fanatics and kids, and an occasional explosives or terror expert. We may be killing a lot of cannon-fodder martyrdom junkies, but the middle east has an infinite supply of them and we are generating many more every day. The level of violence we're seeing in Iraq is only partially due to Al-Quaeda, it is mostly home-grown, and obscured by Baathist holdouts, Shiite and Sunni militias, tribal gangs, common criminals, and perhaps a few professional troublemakers from Syria and Iran. A lot of the violence is not even directed against us. But we are being blamed for all of it.

I don't think we're going to bankrupt or decimate our enemies any more than we could drive China and Russia to the poorhouse in Vietnam. What are the Iranians, for example, "losing" in Iraq? An occasional provacateur, some small arms and explosives, a truckload of contraband every now and then? They are fighting America in a theater that costs them almost nothing. Far from tying down the terrorists, we are the ones who are tied down. They have the US where they want us, in one place and accessible, and they are able to fight with a minimum of expenditure, except in the lives of their recruits, which they have no trouble replacing. We in turn, are hemorrhaging money, lives, goodwill, equipment, credibility and morale, both in our troops and in our people.

I do agree with you that there would have been enormous symbolic and strategic advantages to our success in Iraq, particularly if the original goal of establishing a successful and pro-American state in that region had panned out. But I just can't visualize that happening now. They hate us too much. And it is so easy to frustrate our goals there with the expenditure of relatively little effort.

In short, we are playing their game by their rules. We are wearing red coats and marching in straight lines and they are fighting Indian style. I don't think my realizing this is appeasement or surrender, it's simply seeing the conflict with a different perspective.