Okay Ill grant you that terrorists are blowing up each other. Sunnis are killings Shia. There is civil war. There is mindless murder.

But brushing that aside. Why Leave?

Why not pull back and let them duke it out without leaving Iraq at all.

Right now you have an 80 percent Shia Led government trying to govern a 20 percent Sunni. Not gonna happen. Asking Al Maliki to appease the Sunni is like Asking Lincoln to appease Lee or Lee to appease US Grant. Lives are committed and it aint gonna happen.

The solution then becomes management. Iraq must be managed and the people in Iraq must reach equilibrium without interference from the USA and her allies. Leaving Iraq is not an option, but patrolling the borders and acting as buffers insuring that Syria and Iran do not absorb this country is the true way to fight this war while the Iraqis themselves reach equilibrium.

America and the world must realize that there is not going to be democracy in Iraq. There can be some form of representative government, but let them work that out. Not us. Let us be the referees, not the O-Line.

Besides, we do invasion well and with devastating effect. Why play silly games with these backward cowards? Withdraw, invade, withdraw, invade…until these retched clowns can’t take it anymore or are dead, whatever comes first.

The Democrats are on the correct path, the intelligent path rather than the Hollywood cowboy movie path. Make Bush see the damn light and sign the appropriations bill.

Now what this entails for the long term is still up in the air, but I thin it’s a bit disingenuous to say that there’s no signs of things improving.

I am getting extremely nervous though that if this supplemental isn’t paid for that it’s going to undermine any success we may be having over there. And the more that the insurgents believe there’s a chance of a withdrawal soon, the more they’ll be engaging in attacks to help propel that withdrawal along.

On the other hand, I think the Iraqi government has to have the threat of withdrawal over their heads to propel them to take needed action, so it’s a delicate balancing act.

The oil deal? The proposal to reform Debaathification? The talks with Sunni tribes in Anbar, who are now fighting against AQ? While these are only first steps, there ARE indeed signs that the Maliki govt is coming around – and that if they dont, there is a potential alternative coalition shaping up to take its place (Allawi-Sunnis-Kurds-independent Shiites). And that both these developments are associated with the surge.

None of which has anything to do with statements made by Bush handlers in 2003. Its about the situation on ground NOW.

Be careful about taking too much responsibility for a situation. Take it from someone who knows.

I’m the kind of person who constantly worries what effect my decision will have on others. The result is that you’ll see me standing in front of a candy machine, staring at the various choices but unable to come to a decision, just staring…

That’s what happens when you take excessive responsibility for a given situation: paralysis, or at the very least “staying the course”.

But in my saner moments I stop and realize that I’m not God and that there are in fact many factors in life, of which my own decisions play a very small part. While I might like to think I have an enormous amount of control, in fact I do not.

And I think we have to think about Iraq in a similar fashion: We probably do not have as much control as we think, and Iraq might well slide into Somalia-type anarchy even if we stay. Or it may avoid it if we leave. In either event we can’t stand in front of that foreign policy candy machine forever, afraid of the results of a decision.

At some point you just have hit a button and hope your candy doesn’t get stuck on the way down.

You put your finger squarely on why I am not entirely comfortable with the Democratic scenario.

I do not know what will happen to Iraq when we leave. A “little Iran” is a plausible scenario, but only one of many, few if any of them pleasant.

But the fact of the matter is, the U.S. committment cannot be indefinite.

There is no sign that the surge, merely the latest tactic/strategy to be employed by a military force far smaller than what is necessary, will work in the long run.

There is no sign that the Al Maliki government will be able to put in place the correctives necessary to compliment military gains because it has no real desire to do so.

This, as they say, is the situation on the ground. George Bush broke Iraq and he can’t fixed it. That is tragic, but it is what it is. It is time to get the hell out and let the chips fall where they may.