SR, "ASP" stands for "American Socialist Party", which the poor deluded cons in here equate with either the Congressional Progressive Caucus or the entire Democratic Party, as the fancy strikes them. They wouldn't know socialism from any other ism, and aren't well-traveled or informed enough to comprehend that most other developed nations are a lot further to the left than ours.

Like it or not, he is your dear leader.

No, Booger, Bush is my President, not my "Dear Leader". I don't slavishly swallow and regurgitate his lies and excuses as you do.

How is it "running away" to recognize when something we're doing is making things worse, and act appropriately? Maliki want the US to start withdrawing. He's the elected leader of Iraq. If they put the surge up for a free vote among all Iraqis or in its parliament, what do you think they'd vote for? We're imposing our will on an increasingly resentful populace, and that is just plain stupid and wrong.

Saddam is gone. The WMDs were never there. Every year we stay, things get worse in Iraq. Don't these facts all argue for our ending the occupation? All the legitimate goals, if there were any, were reached in the first month. After that, it was up to the Iraqis to run their own country. Bush and his satraps sure blew at it, didn't they?

Vietnam is like Iraq in that it was an invasion born of lies, an entirely unnecessary military expedition that hurt the US and the host nation severely, got progressively worse despite (or because of) our presence, and eventually were continued against the clear will of the people of both the US and the occupied nation. It is time to go.