Very funny, dianavan. The usual ignorant ploy of argument by ridicule.

Anyone who thinks there's a civil war now, pull the troops out and watch the real war begin. Fact: the insurgents are now mostly attacking Iraqis, not coalition forces. Fact: The biggest threat to Iraqis comes from the insurgents, not the occupation troops. Fact: Attacks on coalition forces have actually declined over the past two or three months, meaning it's getting safer, not more dangerous for the forces. Fact: Call it the "Pottery Barn rule" if you want, the question was reasons to stay now. Fact: The various patriotic Iraqi factions are still working on a constitution. If they haven't given up on their country, why should we? It took the thirteen colonies more than fifteen years to come up with a constitution. There were factions then too, slavery vs. antislavery, North vs. South, agriculture vs. manufacturing, federal vs. antifederal, Christian vs. deist, Tory vs. nationalist. They didn't have a TV miniseries attention-span back then telling them that more than a few months must mean failure.

I didn't vote for Bush, his planning for postwar was completely inadequate, but if there was any reasonable chance that WMDs existed in 2003, he made the right decision to go in. Remember that Iraq was the only country on earth whose position was that it had been at war with America since 1991. No treaty or agreement to end that war was ever signed. Saddam had been shooting regularly at planes in the no-fly zone. Bush had every reason to think that a Saddam-Osama alliance was a real possibility, if not then, then in the future.

Why should America's two sworn enemies NOT join forces? And Saddam was doing everything in his power to make the world believe that he did have the weapons! He didn't fool the inspectors but he did fool the CIA. Well, that's another one against the Bush administration, but being fooled isn't a prosecutable crime, and failing to defend the nation against foreign enemies is.

Please complete the following sentence, people.

"The world would be a safer and better place if Saddam Hussein was still in charge of Iraq four years after 9/11 because______________."

Then do this one.

"The Iraqi people had a much brighter future under Saddam Hussein than under their own imperfectly elected interim government because___________________________."

And one for you committed Marxists.

"When Hussein was in charge the Iraqi people were much closer to societal changes that would improve their lives because____________."

Pacifists, please do this final one. Or if you like, keep playing the blame game, and see how much good that does the Iraqis.   

"The removal of occupation troops now will bring stability to Iraq, protect it from an Iranian-style fundamentalist revolution, and keep innocent Iraqis safe, because_______________________."

"Gutless carping cybersnipe?" Good one. ROTFFFL.