[theapportioner]

I think we can say that the reasons for going to war in the first place (dubious at best) are largely irrelevant now. Even dreams of remaking the Middle East are more or less shattered.

The reason why some want to stay in Iraq now is to clean up our damn mess. The justification for the proposed course of action (increase troops by a bit, stay there indefinitely) is that things will get better. However that's altogether unclear to me.

Why should we believe that staying there a couple years longer will make things any better in the long run? They've been feeding us that same old drivel for the past four years now. Oh, we should just hope, believe in America, believe in Iraqis, blah blah blah. We could stay there another five or ten years and not establish any long-term stability in that country.