Here's the very bottom line for me, Dale, the only reason to stay in Iraq is if the Iraqis want us there.

The thing is we attacked them unprovoked and made a mess of their country. We now own that mess thanks to this administration. I think our troops and the people of this country are better served if we leave Iraq but if the Iraqis and this new government we installed want us to stay...well then...stay we must.

We owe that to the Iraqi people if it's what they want. What disturbs me about the people making speeches about this is they discuss it only in terms of us, our troops, our money, our country, our party...it's like the Iraqis don't count or even exist...and in truth fewer of them exist each day.

This whole war in Iraq was a giant mistake, that my friend is a fact. It has not served to benefit anybody except the few who profit financially from it. They are the ones who can label this war a success because it has met their goals and will continue to meet them because we now have what we lost with the fall of the Soviet Union...a looming threat that never goes away...you can't even describe it's value in billions of dollars, it is quite frankly a gold mine.

Will things get worse there if we leave? More than likely sure they will. I think Iraq finds a more natural ally with Iran and or Syria than with the United States...unless you can get the people in charge to see dollar signs instead of religious text. That's right we have to buy them but we've always known that and that's normal operation to buy the people in charge. Remember that these countries in the Middle East have a history that goes back much further than our 200 years.

What's better for this country and our troops, to remove them from Iraq. I think that is pretty simple. I don't think it's a simple thing to yank them out of there though if the Iraqis want us to stay. I think we have to stay if that's the case.

So to me it comes down to the simple question of what the Iraqis want because we did this to them. That's the heart of it. What a giant sad mistake to put our country into a position where we must put the needs of another country before our own. Wouldn't you say?