My feelings on this war are mixed. Obviously, at some point we need to end this madness; but at what point can we be reasonably sure that this withdrawal will not just portend a rise in the war? That is the true question as I see it. Many of you are angry at Bush's claim that Iraq was developing and even posessed WMD's as his excuse for our original involvement there. I am too; because I believe that all he wanted was the removal of Saddam Hussein from power- he just miscalculated in that he (and many others) assumed that once removed; the Iraqi problems would stop. To me, Iraq is the lesser of two evils in the Middle East. Next to them; there is a country that is openly announcing it's uranium enrichment program and what plans they have for this. Now, Do we stay in the Middle East or not?
I believe war to be the failure of diplomacy. I also believe Iraq (and Iran) just plan to wait us out and let the American people's sentiment cause us to lose everything we thought we were there for- as happened in Vietnam. Our military did not lose in Vietnam- our politicians did. After enough time the Hanoi government started talking about possible peace (but were planning for their ultimate triumph militarily). We were so sick of Vietnam by this point we didn't see the real reason for the Hanoi claims of peace. As soon as we started major withdrawal of forces and they got us to the Paris peace talks; the hammer fell. South Vietnam was overrun in short order, as there were no longer any American forces of substance in the theater. As a result, we wasted our time, money, and countless American lives there and lost everything. Do you not think the rest of the world didn't learn this lesson about the weakness of American politics?