How do we clean up this mess?

There might already be a diary or two like this up, but I haven't had time to search, plus we should be thinking about this every day -- since the administration certainly isn't.

Besides the monumental moral reasons for getting the hell out of Iraq, there are political reasons, too.

Because with nothing left for the GOP to stand on, its leaders will no doubt continue to attack us for what it'll call our "obstructionist" and "do-nothing" ways.

That's why we need to not only be shouting about the horrors this war is causing, the bogus reasons for entering into it and the bumbling judgment of our leaders, but WE NEED to offer a REAL PLAN for how to end this tragedy in Iraq.

So, HOW DO WE GET OUT OF THIS MESS?

Can -- and should -- we simply withdrawal immediately?

If we do, will blood flow in the Tigris when hundreds or thousands, perhaps millions, perish in a civil war and the likely resulting Islamist state?

Will the terrorists of Al-Qaeda be emboldened by a U.S. pull-out, much like they were -- as a fledgling organization -- when the Soviets bolted from Afghanistan in the 1980s?

Does that even matter?

Yet how can we stay?

Can we somehow get the U.N. in here?

Please, no unrealistic, impossible suggestions -- just realistic ideas and plans.

I don't have the answer, and I suspect the best answer is going to be terrible, too.

We are truly stuck.

Is there a way out?

I am praying for guidance.