Hillary Clinton wants to start removing us from this civil war within 60 days. What's wrong with Iraq fighting out their own civil war without us sustaining casualties? If they want a Bosnian type peacekeeping force to try to keep a semblance of peace, then other countries should be sharing the effort, and end this insane go-it-alone strategy.

The surge may have held the Sadarist at bay for now, but we can not maintain the surge.

It is clear that the Iraq Army can not defeat these Sadarist and they have the backing of Iran.

What has happened is the we, the US, has fought the the Iraq, Iran war for Iran.

Everything we have done has emboldened Iran. Then we figure the soultion is to attack Iran; Which will turn their people against us. How many enemies do we need to create?

WestCoastMessenger
You never cease to amaze me. Why would any country interject themselves into this mess when we started this unilaterally in the first place. The only point we agree on is that this mess must end and if the Iraqi government does not want to grow up and deal with their own issues then let them fight themselves. I am a Veteran and I have seen enough loss of life for a baseless war. I questioned the motives of the Bush administration on this one from the beginning and begged my representatives to vote against it. I am proud to say that two of them no longer rubber stamp Bush policies. The next two are up for election very soon and will answer for this mess. There are many more who supported this effort that need to own up to the American people and apologize. That includes HRC.

All three of the candidates have been insufficiently candid on their preferred plans for our future involvement in Irak.

And Congress has done little too stave off operation pass the buck.

The skewed intelligence data that helped Cheney and Bush get us into war in the first place is at the center of what we do now. Then it was weapons of mass destruction and Bush knew the skewed card he was playing. He should have let the inspectors continue and bring other nations along in the UN. No, he puffed up that we could go it alone. He did not want to work with the UN, because after all, The United States is tough and we are strong enough to get the job done! Now, as Joe Biden pointed out in the presidential debates, what is scarier than Iran and nuclear weapons is the instability in Pakistan with much more nuclear weapons than Iran.

We cannot afford the war in Iraq, and if we have to do something in that area, Chuck Hagel has the right idea. It's where we should have concentrated our efforts on terrorism and those who caused 9/11. Hagel says the area along the Afghanistan/Pakistan border was and is the area we should have concentrated. Was the Iraq War about WMDs or oil? We certainly do have some dangerous work to do. Hillary Clinton gave a plan to get the troops out of Iraq carefully and soon. Barak Obama said he could do it in 16 months. John McCain is not in any hurry it seems, but he did equate his "100 years" remark with current bases in Korea and other countries. Barak Obama criticized Clinton's plan in the debate. Now, he is criticizing McCain with the "100 years" figure of speech remark and saying we would need troops there to protect out embassies and the Iraqis who helped us, while keeping a contingincy strike force in Iraq or outside Iraq. That is exactly what he criticized Clinton for in the debates. We do not need a double talker calling the shots on this terrible mess. We need someone with knowledge and ability to analyze the entire picture with all the ramifications. McCain and Clinton have already expressed a lot of knowledge and strategic thinking. Obama is not the right person to solve this problem.

For once I agree with westcoast messenger... we need people to step in to be able to remove ourselves...

Unfortunately I also agree with Lou... who is going to step in to this mess...

I am not trying to swing this into another internal party debate...but one of the three candidates didn't vote for the war (whether that is fair to say or not...he did not VOTE and he also happens to have said he was against it)

so which candidate has the credibility to go to other countries and say... we are leaving and not take as much personal blame... The guy who looks like he wasn't involved in creating the mess.

Who has the best chance of convincing people to help us... who has the best chance of saying "We are leaving and we have to... Iran is going to come in behind us so if you all don't step up and help they will be putting you all may end up with Iran as your neighbor.

...who can do that and not have those countries completely drop us down the "invite list" next time we need their support.... or add to the flames of hatred toward sare country for destroying a country and leaving it for the bad guys to take over. We need them to stand up, we need to leave...but if you don't think it is going to be very tricky to get out of situation "we" created...

McCain can't do it...and neither can Clinton...they voted for this war...and those whose help we need...screw it the world knows that better than we do.

The Commander Guy: I knew if I stayed on these blogs long enough I might find something I agree with you on! I do agree that nither Hillary or Obama are telling us the truth about what they are going to do about Iraq! Ms Powers told the canadians that the 16 mo plan that he is running on is mainly for political consumption, and Hillary has hedged and said that she would ask the military to come up with a plan to start to withdraw troops in 6 mo.

Well as you can tell each has left themselves with wiggle room and thus they can say that the conditions on the ground are different than when they were campaigning! The truth is that if Hillary or Obama is elected it will be difficult politically for them to extracate us from Iraq. The fact is that Al Queda may not have been in Iraq before the invasion but they are there now, and they are not going to withdraw when we do! Even Obama once said that if Al Queda came back we would reserve the right to back in and take them out! The fact is like I said they are not leaving, and who want's to go back once we are out! It ain't going to happen! Another problem is Iran and the fact that when we pull out all the factions are going to fight in an all out civil war, and the irony is that we will be backing the Sunnis against the Shiites! Another reason they may not be able to get out quickly is political. What democrat is willing to take the chance that they will be the one who symbolically lost this war! If we pull out and chaos emerges and Iran is in control then the Republicans wil say that it was because we cut and run!

So McCain may be closer to the truth, not 100 yrs. but definitely more than Obama and Hillary are willing to say!

Of the Three Candidate left.

It is wither Obama or McCain that stand the best chance to extricate our position in Irak.

McCain was always for the war with one caveat i.e., Rumsfeld (think Bush) screwed up. Obama was always against the war. They have been consistent.

Hillary for the war until she got out flanked on the left by Obama. Then she became against the war.

So we are left with either McCain or Obama to lead the way out.

These are the facts.

Biden voted for the war too....and a large majority of Americans were for it. Obama and I held the same position in 2002. But neither one of us were in the U S Senate or privy to the information that Kerry and Biden and Edwards and Hillary had before the vote... And since Obama got to the Senate he has voted with Hillary.

As far as getting out I's stick with Hillary's plan that is similar to Obama's only she came up with it first with the help of her much larger ex-brass and military support.

And she's been to Iraq 3 times (2 more times than Obama0 but he's been too busy running for President since he came to the Senate to hold hearings or even vote (Hillary has voted almost twice as much as Obama)..

Actually what has this guy ever done?

Thinking: We fought the Iraq, Iran war for Iran, we have been outsmarted. All compliments of that great strategist George Bush. How dumb is that. We need a complete change like with Barack Obama.

Joe Biden should have been our candidate.

GET THE TROOPS OUT and STOP THE BACKDOOR DRAFT of STOP LOSS and the IRR RECALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Biden is posturing for a senior role in the next administration.

Undermining Patraeus is the same as undermining Bush which is the same as undermining McCain. Typical of partisans looking to regain power. Politics.

McCain is consistent and can be trusted.
Obama is consistent and can be trusted.
Hillary is inconsistent and cannot be trusted.

The choice is McCain or Obama.

Checks and balances will keep Obama's liberal instincts in check. His leadership qualities are unique. He needs a mandate from us all.

The choice is clearly Barack Obama.

Liberals are liberals and will always be liberals. Even if the evidence had proven weapons of mass destruction had been in Iraq they would have found a way to disgrace us on the world stage. Liberals are all about the america last ideal which is why their "messiah" is winning the primaries. Biden and all the other neophytes of Obama preach the party message which is indeed america last.

chuck w/his paranoid comments about liberals & "America last" is ill-informed. The ideal ticket would be Obama/Wesley Clark, who has the best grasp of our invasion of Iraq and the terrible consequences for us, plus the experience to oversee the military. We are broke & in huge debt, our troops are exhausted and depleted. Bush/Cheney must be impeached to show the rest of the world we are not all idiots and we have finally woken up.

Nobody Cares about what these
clowns have to say!
Lt Generals? Are you serious?
These guys aren't good enough to make
General and their opinions are being
quoted! We all know where Biden is coming from!
I think I'll wait to hear from
Gen Patraeus and Crocker!
By the way Hillary, you Still owe
Gen Patraeus an apology!

Nobody cares about what Joe Biden and some minor Lt Generals have to say about Iraq! Lt Generals!
Is the media going to get the opinion
of Non-Coms next?
We need to listen to what Petraeus and
Crocker have to say.
Contrary to the implication of the headline, Biden and his
uninformed Lt Generals do not and will
not preempt Anything!