You (and the die-hard right in general) will continue to insist that we are just about to win or just about to 'turn the corner' until we finally leave. When the inevitable collapse after the withdraw of troops transpires, you will then not blame the faulty thinking and incompetence behind the initiation and conduct of this war, but those who called for its termination.

See also: Vietnam.

Bookmark this post, Tom, Everyone, because this is exactly whats going to come to pass.

I also think we can't leave, and should send in however many troops it takes- enacting a draft if we have to. But I think we must do this not to 'win' this 'war', or that its moral for us to have gone there, or for any reason that was given for us to go there in the first place, or for any of the endless litany of mis-truths and political slogans concocted over the last 4 years about why we must stay.

But because within a few months or years of our departure, there will be a genocide in Iraq resulting in an instability in the region which will at worst spark an all out multi-party regional war, and at best result in a torrent of terrorist volunteers for generations to come.

The only reasonable non-suicidal aim for America to shoot for at this point is a new Middle East Order based around a semi-permanently occupied Iraq, a well paid off (IE, Status Quo) Saudi Arabia, a stable military dictatorship in Pakistan (IE, status Quo) and, regardless of if we like it or not: A new major power in the region in the shape of Iran.

But America is not going to stand for that. The withdraw will begin unofficially after the November presidential elections and conclude a few months after the turnover of the government. As things go to hell in a hand basket, Tom and all the idiots like him who landed us in this shit-swamp will blame everyone who told him it was a bad Idea and predicted this would become our own west bank.

Yeti