I read with interest McClellan's plaint:
The eve of an historic democratic election in Iraq is not the time to surrender to the terrorists.
Let's get this clear: we're not fighting terrorists in Iraq.
Rather, we're in the midst of a growing Civil War there, one that we touched off with
our invasion. It's not our fault that the Iraqis are lining up the way they are and doing the things they're doing. But the US Military that's over there now is not fighting a "terrorist enemy", per se. They are being attacked almost entirely by Iraqis, 99.99 percent of whom want us out NOW. They're fighting us because we took over their country, and threw them out of power. They use terrorist methods, but those are the only methods they have to fight the US military on their soil.
We've got to take away this terrorist card. This is a Civil War. We touched it off. We don't have anything to gain (and much to lose) by siding with anyone in this war -- certainly not in any political or military sense that I can see.
The terrorists who are there came to Iraq because, like a virus, they saw it as a weakened host. We may have issues with some few "terrorists" who are there now, but they're well hidden among the now universally hostile Iraqi populace. I don't think the Iraqis want them there either, and I think if they're left to their own devices, eventually they'll throw them out. But that will NEVER happen as long as we're occupying THEIR country.
It's a Civil War, not terrorism. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.