I would recommend a full retreat/withdrawal. Our country needs to suffer the full shame for what we have allowed to occur in Iraq. If we do not acknowledge defeat, we will forever be condemned to repeat the same mistake again in the future as we did in the past with Viet Nam. By immediate withdrawal, which is in essence what we did when we finally retreated for Viet Nam, the world and history will forever have evidence to hold the U.S. accountable for the war atrocities we committed in Iraq. By the way, Viet Nam is thriving today. Iraq could return to what it was before Saddam. They need to practice their on religion and develop their own culture without our better-than-thou Christian Crusader force.

We had our Civil War and look at the great country we are today. When we pull out of Iraq, there will be chaos but it will not be worse than Sherman's March Through Georgia or the 618,000+ of our own we murdered and/or lost to disease. We slaughtered our own brothers and sisters in our War Between the States so what will happen in Iraq will be no worse than that.

Then if the "fertile crescent', which Bush turned into the fertile terrorist crescent, becomes a direct threat to the U.S. to the point of a possible annihilation of our country we retaliate with nuclear power. We give them a strong warning then we totally annihilate them if they do not cease and desist. However, I do not think it would ever come to that.

A conventional army cannot win conflicts like Viet Nam and the War on Terror. If we plan to have a dog in that fight, we must destroy whole cultures. Lincoln at first abhorred what General Sherman did then praised him later by giving him all the glory. Lincoln realized that the War would have been lost if this drastic step of decimating the South's culture and supply routes was not done. We need to develop a Sherman-like strategy in the Middle East if we ever need to return there.

What I just suggested is difficult to posit. I am a proud Viet Nam era veteran and lost a fine brother, who I still mourn daily, in Laos during that conflict. (My brother's favorite song was the "Ballad of the Green Beret" and he was an exemplary Green Beret Officer). I am listening to that song now and I still hurt.

As Sherman said, and we should not forget, "war is hell". His hell just used more primitive tools back then than what we have in our modern arsenal. Sherman would have used whatever means available today to win whatever war he was commissioned to fight in today's world. By the way, I would have fought for the Confederacy had I lived then.

If Britain and the U.S. are disgraced and humiliated, as I think we must be, then we will likely never enter an unjust, preemptive war again. I do not think the rest of the world would stand for it.

Finally, if we continue with this war, our own culture will be irreparably damaged and our economy will collapse rendering us easy targets for the rest of the world to do with us as they please.

We are going to lose in the Middle East and the only decision is when and how we choose to do so. I strongly suggest immediate withdrawal without prejudice.