You are like a broken clock- it will be 20 mins after 4pm evenually.

Within in a year is not "now".

Calling for troop withdraw in 2004 [or eariler] to be done "right now" is more wrong than calling for troop withdrawal at the present- but within a year is more reasonable, then "Now".

But it shouldn't be forgotten that in the last few months the Iraqi govt wanted more US troops rather than less [and got them]. And at such time that they need less troops that might be a better time to be saying we should leave Iraq, "now".

As far as the seventh point. One of our purposes was to change the Iraqi regime- and that has already been achieved. Another purpose was to fight the terrorists in Iraq, rather than the US [or elsewhere] and that is what happenned.
That "94% of Iraqis continue to disapprove of al-Qaeda" is also significant victory [major defeat to our enemy. Hell, what about the simple ability do any kind of poll in Iraq]. So much for the fantasy of Iraq being made into a breeding ground for terrorists. Rather, it's more accurate to say Iraq is a death trap for the terrorists- and the longer they fail to realize this the better it will be for Aghanistan and more importantly, the rest of the world.

There are also signs that Europe is waking up to the threat of terrorism. And who knows, maybe France will actually do something to slow down the amount cars being torched daily in their cities- that or they will evenually run out cars to torch.

But the progess that has been made is NOT due some people sticking their head in the sand and wishing the unpleasant problem would go away. Lots of brave men and women have died or have been seriously injuried fighting this evil and far more are presently fighting it. And large portion of those involved in this are the individuals in the Iraqi security forces [currently 323,000 according to 11/29/06 Iraq Weekly Status Report].

The simple truth is that Iraqis wanted their Freedom, and we have helped them fight for it.
It seems to me that the Iraqis have already proven that they are worthy of the US blood and treasure that we have spent.