When everyone over here is talking about timetables for departure and media stories of "failure" - what would you think if you were an Iraqi, perhaps with a family in a contested area where Al Qaeda and others are trying to gain influence and remove US friendlies?

You'd lay low. Be noncomittal and secretly pray the Americans stay and get rid of the bad guys.

The left here and our enemies abroad have already won when they can get everyone to talk about splitting - a total propaganda victory for Al Qaeda and their Euro sponsors.

It's enough to turn one's stomach that folks are that evil and care nothing about the average Iraqi or the fate of the Middle East - after DECADES of lip service to the "Middle East problem", but what's worse and more annoying is the ignorance and gullibility of the average American in recognizing what's in the world's, and their own, best interests.