To quote Congressman Murtha - and possibly the new majority Leader "Our military has done all it can do in Iraq, and the Iraqis want their occupation to end. I support bringing our troops home at the earliest practicable date, at a rate that will keep those remaining there safe on the ground. It's time that the White House and the GOP start working with Democrats in Congress to come up with a reasonable timetable for withdrawal and for handing the Iraqi government over to the Iraqis."
I agree with Congressman Murtha - we have done all we can do. We cannot stop the civil war there - which has been going on and off for many hundreds of years. We are not going to get any cheap oil. We cannot democratize Iraq. We cannot Christianize Iraq. There are no WMD to be found, and the few al qaeda are there because of the chaos we have stirred up.
So "how to get out? It's easy really. Hang Hussein. Certainly the war to get him was not worth it - but he's a nasty piece of work. Then we declare victory and leave very fast. Hopefully we do not wait so long as to create more pictures of helicopters plucking escapees from the embassy roof top.
O yes and those images that bring back thoughts of the final days of Vietnam. All of SE Asia was going to fall. Instead Communist Eastern Europe fell. Meanwhile this week Vietnam was admitted to the WTO and announced a Billion dollar investment by Intel....