[mburbank]

Kevin, I agree with much of what you're saying. Here's where I think we may differ:

"we broke it, and it's our job to fix it. "

I felt that way for a while. It's a bad feeling, especially since the very people who did the breaking are in charge of the fixing. My question:

What do we mean by 'fixing'?

What will a 'fixed' Iraq look like? If they democratically intsall majority Sharia law and begin a Taliban style reign of terror, wil we concider it fixed? If the political situation clarifies into a 'legitimate' government fighting a civil war, would that be 'fixed'. or would we need to stay to prop up the government? Do we need to stay until there is both a legitmate democracy and a trustworthy and functional army and police force? That would certainly be 'fixed' to my mind, but I think our very presence will provent that from happening.

I'm not saying this isn't a god awful ugly mess. I'm saying I don't think we can make things anything but worse, and I'm saying I don't think we even have a plan to make things better and there's no possability of that plan forming before the next president takes office. "Stay the course" is not a plan.

I think the loss of lives on all sides is being exaserbated by our presence. I think the money we are spending, not only on the actual war, but on bribes, giveaways and throwaways would be far more realistically spent preparing for the next flu pandemic.