Wow, Shad. Your faith in Bush is touching, but misplaced. If Bush were competent, the situation would not have deteriorated so badly. We have had more troops in Iraq at earlier times; he must, if you are correct, been misusing them horribly.

The left has no plan for winning in Iraq because we recognize that the US can't win in Iraq. Only Iraq can resolve this, if it is going to be resolved, and the longer we're there the longer it will take for them to do it. It's sad that the invasion and occupation has led Iraq to this bloodbath, but you were warned and went ahead anyway. The people you praise as competent said that the Iraqis would greet us as liberators, not occupiers; they were wrong. They thought the insurgency would burn out within the first year; it got bigger. They denied there was a civil war; but even the UN called it that. These people are not able to do what they say they can do. They've proven it over and over, in Afghanistan, Iraq, Louisiana, and elsewhere.

I hope and expect that additional US troops will put a lid on some of the problems in Baghdad while they are there, at a cost in American lives. But they will not, cannot, eradicate those problems. The sectarian warfare will continue. And you act as though Baghdad is the only place in crisis. The newspapers, if you read any, would tell you that several provinces are the scene of attacks on Americans, Iraqi police, and various ethnic groups. Your confidence is not echoed in any reports I have seen recently from commanders or grunts in Iraq. Their earlier optimism has evaporated. Now it's just a grim war of attrition that can't lead to a victory; we don't even know all our enemies, though we do know there are many.

What most American citizens have come to realize is that the war supporters seem to want an open-ended commitment for us to be there sustaining casualties for as long as it takes to make them seem less stupid for invading. But it is highly unlikely that our presence can make Iraq a stable, free nation that will be friendly to the US and its aims. The opposite has happened, in fact: Iraq has gotten worse every year we've been there. It is these facts that have convinced a majority in Congress, including many many former supporters of this war on both sides of the aisle, that Bush has it very wrong now. What are the odds that this will be the first smart move he's made in this misbegotten enterprise?

Save American lives--disengage starting now.