". . . they have already declared that it's time to abandon Iraq (as we did in Viet Nam) and leave the country to the Terrorists."

And where did you hear that, Doug, other that in Republican rhetoric? What the Democrats have been complaining about is that it was obvious that the Bush administration had no exit strategy at all, and some members of the Bush administration even said that we'll be in Iraq for at least the next 20 years. And even if we did pull out today, it wouldn't "leave the country to the Terrorists," it would leave the Sunnis and the Shiites to duke it out for control of the country (in short, a civil war), and put the Kurds, who want a country of their own rather than be part of Iran, in a very precarious position.

The Bush administration shat on them, Doug, and now the Democrats are going to have to clean up Bush's mess. It would be very nice to be able to bring the troops home today, but this country, under Bush, has acquired some moral obligations to the Iraqi people. And one of the "morals" that I hope some of the leaders of this country has learned is that democracy doesn't come out of the barrel of a gun. Never has, never will. One teaches this sort of thing by example. And we haven't been a very good example as far as a number of countries in the Mid-East and in South and Central America are concerned because of our support of dictatorial regimes. Like
Saddam until he stopped being obedient.

In the meantime, the "Terrorists" are a whole separate issue.

Incidentally, why do you put a capital "T" in "Terrorists?" It isn't as if terrorists are a distinct nation. They are a loose-knit cabal of international criminals who fancy themselves "freedom fighters" (not without some justification, incidentally), and need to be dealt with as such. It should be a joint multi-national intelligence operation. Trying to quell terrorists with a full military operation (a la the Iraq war) is like trying to swat a fly with a sledge hammer. You wind up smashing a lot of things, but the fly is still buzzing around.

Don Firth