I turned to my dearest the day Dubbya landed on the aircraft carrier and said "Well, we won the war we couldn't lose. Now we are going to lose the war we cannot win." That's a fact. I really held out hope when the Iraqis voted for their own leadership, but leadership has not materialized, only division, violence, strife, fractionalization and foreign intrigue from every quarter. In the US we can take a draftee and in 6 to 8 weeks we can turn out a caombat ready troop. We have been "training" the Iraqis for a period longer than our entire involvment in WWII. We won the war we could not lose. Only the Iraqis can win this other war. My opinion has changed. Its time for the people of Iraq to stand up instead of being propped up by the American military. As we depart we need to let them know that whatever happens now it is their responsibility.

As to my comparison of America to the Red Coats of old, let me draw a few lines of contrast. Many of the colonials fled England and other countries to avoid religious persecution. The Islamic radicals ARE the persecutors. The American Revolutionaries had sought to live in peace with John Bull and cogently laid out their grievences of "intolerable conditions" in the Declaration of Independence. Radical Islam is not about the rights of individuals but about conformity and world dominance. The protection of the weak and defenceless has always been the first consideration of Americans of either party and everything inbetween. The terrorist feel no such compunction. In fact they think of their enemies as less than human and thus they banish any guilt that might arise. I feel that we can deal with global terrorism but not in the ways we have used to date. There are better ways.