There's less consistency between opposing the invasion and favoring troop increases than there is between opposing the invasion and favoring pulling out now.

But no one seems to be calling for that because no one is in favor of ending this war now - except perhaps, the soldiers ("A soldier, above all, prays for Peace") ..and the mothers and fathers who've lost sons and daughters in Iraq.

Sadly, in the absence of Saddam, the occupying forces have become - for what they're worth - somewhat of a stabilizing factor and make any kind of exit strategy problematic. Pulling out now will involve way more planning than Bush & Co. put into planning the invasion in the first place - and if their abysmal history of foreign policy is any indication, frankly they're not up for the job even if they were so inclined. Any sort of abrupt withdrawal would, I'm afraid, result in a collapse into chaos for the whole region - destabilization with far greater negative impact on a global scale now than before the U.S. ever got involved. The "way forward" should be some sort of exit strategy, but now that will involve addressing much broader and far more complicated issues than Bush's myopic "War on Terrorism."