obviously you wanted me to reconsider, huh AMos? YES of course it would be a bloody mess, but in reality Vietnam was a CIVIL WAR we had now business being involved in. it was never about domino theory communism. Iraq would and someday will devolve in a CIVIL WAR, hell the whole country was made up by Great Britain who drew arbitrary or cynical boundaries to pit one faction against the other. let them work it out. it is their land to fight for and it is their life to give. and they will continue to fight for their liand whether we are there or not. It outraged me to hear the Marine commander talk about 'precise, overwhelming force to destroy the rebel insurgents' or some such crap. the same cynical posturing remarks Sharon and every other right wing Israeli government uses about the PLO or Hamas, or whoever they blame for their occupation of Palestinian territory. 'I know, why not let's build a wall in Iraq with the people we like on one side and every one else on the other. Then we'll be safe.'

how many more lives will it take before we inevitably leave Iraq?
why should it take one more, tell me that, and justify it to the family of whoever that one life belonged to.