Im not saying im for it or not. Im just saying some of the points being made dont stand up to scrutiny.

THE WAR IN IRAQ WAS NEVER ABOUT THE WOMAN THEY RAPE.IF THATS THE CASE WE WOULD BE IN EVERY COUNTRY IN THE WORLD

I think he was saying we went over there to kill and rape women and children.

My sentiment exactly.

Then move to different country, maybe france.

Unfortunately we stirred a hornets nest over there and we need to figure out an exit strategy. These people have been killing each other for thousands of years and we are going to make it all better? I think not.

The Soviets got their asses kicked in Afghanistan, granted we trained and backed the Muhajadin rebels (including Osama) and now what difference are we going to make? Didn't we learn a lesson then?

This business of nation building and covering it with a blanket of freedom and democracy has to stop. The Iraqis were in a dictatorship for over 30 years. If they wanted their country back they would have taken it. In fact Sadam was our ally and we supplied arms to fight Iran in the Iran-Iraq war. Donald Rumsfeld himself shook the man's hand and until now he was a threat to our national security? BULL****!

We (I didn't vote for that idiot Bush) put and oil man and a defense contractor in the White House and defied the rest of the world to fight Iraq. Now we are suffering the consequences by spilling the blood of our servicemen and women due to the arrogance and greed of our present administration.

We need to get them out of there! ASAP. God Bless them all.

But finding a viable exit strategy is the problem

Iraq and Afghanistan are two different animals. Afghanistan has had a free society in the not to distant past and is doing a good job of recreating one.

I have naever had and never will have anything good to say about Rumsfield.

The war in Iraq right or wrong the cost has just been to high. Right or wrong it wasn't worth the cost in lives. It's just an attempt by our govt to spread it's ideology. The "War on Terror" seems to work as well as "the War on Drugs". Yes, there are terrosists out there who want to do harm in the U.S.A. But dropping bombs just doesn't seem to be the answer and Iraq was never part of the plot of 9/11. Its time to pull combat troops out and just leave force protection and training troops there

That souds good, but if you do that you will just be fighting a completely defensive war. You have to have both teams to get anywhere, offense and defense.

Funny that you mentoned that hotchy.

We have the only president that has declared war on a word. If we were effectively going to fight terrorism from the start then all the world's intellingence communities should have put their heads and resources together to sweep and clear.

As for an exit strategy I feel that we should gradually and significantly reduce our ground presence and monitor and support Iraqi forces from the air. Same goes for Afghanistan. Just my 2 cents.

Right or wrong, I think thats probaby what is going to happen. The Iraqi forces will suddenly be declared capable ad we will start moving out.

Surge has worked. Stability has increased. A majority of Iraqis have turned against sectarian violence. Al Qaeda is losing big time. Constitution. Economy is stabilizing, Dinar is increasing in value. People are beginning to return in much greater numbers. Fewer are fleeing Iraq. Carnivals are able to be held. Streets full of cars with people going about their daily lives. Schools full of students again. Most places with full water and electric. Most of the country sees no violence. Kids playing in streets again in big cities. Iraqi Security Forces taking a much greater role and increasing in size everyday. Republicans and Democrats who have visited since the surge have had a huge change in view from previously, most surprisingly Murtha.

A democracy in the Middle East, as oil rich, as technologically advance, with a huge educated population, and next to both Afghanistan and Iran is a very good thing, both for the free people of Iraq and citizens of the US for oil flow and stability.

Your not going to see that on CNN

Sounds like something coming out of the White House Press Secretary's mouth.

And thus immediately a lie, right?

Well the credibility of this adminitration is not exactly stellar, don't you agree?

As long as our servicemen and women continue to come home in body bags, I am inclined to say yes but hope what you say is true.

All stuff can be found in independent reports and news, most which like to hide this stuff on page 14 in the corner of the page.

War is death, to not expect bodybags and then have them, like it seems many in the media and the country believed, is foolish. However, to have as little as we have had, in a full out guerilla war versus an enemy that is willing to blow themselves up is quite unprecedented.

To find the information I relayed you have to do some pretty simply searching around google and internet media outlets as well as government and professional sites.

I did not include any links to what I said and thus it should be held in scrutiny because I could be lying through my teeth, but I know the information is out there for I've had to do the searching before for various forums I've been on and just my own research.

ready .... I go along with your mindset that it was a mistake for us to go into Iraq. I read "Art of War" in Political Science Class and you are correct in that we cannot retreat. I want to expand on your thinking by saying that although Iraq is a difficult situation, we have to stay. Quitting helps the terrorists. These terrorists want to drive America from Iraq in order to establish a solid base for al Qaeda to conduct global terrorist operations and spread jihad across the Middle East.

If we retreat from this war we will hurt our allies who are counting on us -- Karzai in Afghanistan and Musharraf in Pakistan. They can't win without us and they will not continue to fight, if we abandon them.

Additionally, an American retreat from Iraq will embolden Iran's Ahmadinejad, making it even less likely that he will halt his nuclear weapons program.

I voted for Bush both times. What were my choices besides him? Flip floppers and spineless lobbyists mouth pieces. Saying this, I have become disillusioned with the war in Iraq. Wew have put ourselves between a rock and a hard spot and an exit strategy is becoming more unclear. Sadaam needed to be taken out. He was using WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION on his own people. So don't give me that bull**** about there being none there. America helped him develope chemical facilities during the Iran/Iraq conflict that lasted 10 years and yielded a stalemate. As late as '97, intelligence from multiple countries, not just America, confirmed the possession of chemical and biological capabilities and stockpiles. When the **** went down, the activity on the border with Syria was heightened dramatically. That is probably where they went. The conundrum is, that even though Sadaam was a meglo maniac, he hated terrorism, wasn't a stout Muslim, unless being filmed and most Arabs hated him. He kept a check on terrorism in the region. After all, Iraqi's are persian, Iranians are aryan. For the most part Arabs of the region were against his regime and he kept focus off of us to a certain extent. Now that he is gone, Iraq has become a breeding ground for terrorism. As soon as we pull out a civil war WILL ensue. There is nothing we can do. We cannot change a culture. Only a regime. I believe our forces should be dramatically reduced and support logistically, by air and by sea only. For those that say **** America and it's troops, I say to you that you have no backbone, no strength and no conviction.

Iranians are Persian.