Great acknowledgment of the way things are Terry Pratchett. I wish everybody could see what you seel The whole debate reminds me of this passage. I think Terry captured the problem rather well:

you can't drive out one dictator and force people you never met to lead themselves. I think the envasion should never have happened, but since it has, you can't retreat now. Too late...

Now that things are the way they are, we have to deal with it from what we know about today. I think all respondents on this thread have correctly identified the mistakes America has made in the War. Isn't hindsight great? Now, we must try hard to not repeat the mistakes we have collectively pointed out.

It would have been super if President Bush had handled the invasion better by not dismantling the army of Iraq but rather having kept them together to help bring stability to the country. It would would have been better than starting from scratch in building a new army. Having failed to do this, it would have been better to have brought more soldiers to keep the peace strong in Iraq until the civilian population could recover. Isn't hindsight wonderful?

It took us too long to realize that the surge was necessary. I hope every citizen wants the surge to work. But, there is that group of citizens who seek political advantage by seeing our national interest fail in Iraq. That may have something to do with why the House in Congress refuses to vote on legislation related to the war effort. If the war was to wind down in Iraq because Al Queada was being pushed out of Iraq, it would hurt a lot of politicians' arguments.

Right or wrong, regardless of the mistakes we have made, it is costing us too much money to continue the war. However, we can not afford to pull out and leave Iraq to Al Queada or the Iranians, both of whom have said they would fill the vacuum with the departure of the Americans. I like what Obama said on NBC News that if Al Queada established a stronghold in Iraq that he would send the troops back in, if he were President.

There may not be a perfect option, but would it not be less expensive in the long run to pull together and make sure the job is done quickly and completely. Our enemies know no borders and to defeat them, we have to go where they are or else they will come to us. Our country can't just say we stop the war because it is too expensive. The enemy will not stop killing us regardless. Although we know that the enemy has a fall back tactic, which is to ruin our economy. This is another good reason to act quickly and decisively.

One more thing, without meaning insult to anybody, I do think it less than patriotic to use the war as an avenue to gain political advantage. When Al Queada kills our citizens around the world and in Iraq, they do not ask if you are a Democrat or Republican. They simply want to kill Americans. We need so badly to have a united effort against our enemies so much that Al Queada is not a cheerleader for whomever wins the election.