As was easily predicted by many Americans, in the end, our ability to build a nation at the point of a gun is nill. We could stay 50 years and the result would be the same as if we left next year. We are, as we were in Vietnam, an ineffectual giant with the ability to kill the enemy all day long and wonder stupidly where they keep coming from. My God! Two more years of these idiots.

can anyone believe what comes out of bush's mouth?

if you can, I have some swamp land I need to sell.

If the militias won't be brought down by either force or political concessions, then the war and the occupation is lost.

Al-Sadr is ruthless and reckless. He must be taken care of.
Otherwise, he will become next Saddam of Iraq.

Why don't U.S. politicians speak plainly. They seem preoccupied with forecasting or prophecy. If some country has this or does this it means our future will be placed in peril. They don't know this and there's no way of predicting. China, Russia, Vietnam and even Britian were our enemies at one time. What is the problem. I am beganing to believe that our leaders inflame fears to justify their political positions.

The fact of the matter is, Americans don't really care who wins this civil war in Iraq. We have a government that's in cahoots with Sadr, who's basically a tool of Iran, why would we want him to stay in power? Young American men and women should die so that Iranian-backed zealots can retain power? Meanwhile we have a President who falls back on ever-more-elemental cliches to sell what we're doing, but the American people are past all that ... we know what's going on. Why does he keep treating us like ignorant fools?

It's amazing how the Bush Administration can continue to disguise the real reasons for the occupation as it bobs and weaves and changes its story according to the dictates of unfolding realities. George and his neo-con henchmen are painting the floor and that obscure corner at the far end of the room is looming closer and closer. Bravery and honor are lofty human ideals to which one may aspire when the national debate considers "cut and run" and "stay the course" but what happened to the old fashioned concept of just being smart. A little use of that three pound organ between our ears can prevent a lot of international embarrassment and even save a little ammo. Use your brain, George, the WMD's don't exist, the evil dictator is deposed and in custody, and you've done your best to bring democracy to a bunch of thankless wretches who wouldn't know what to do with it anyway. You've won, George. Declare a victory and get out. Save your Republican party, save your presidential legacy, save money, save yourself. That corner on the dark side of the room is getting perilously close. The paint is going to stay wet for a long time. Besides, one way or another we're going to have to buy the oil anyway.

how can the US help build a country in the Middle East, when "our" government can't even end sectarian animosities in this country. Ask yourselves how a government that rules by fiat and unelected "Agencies" here can show Iraq how to Make a government. Ask yourselves how many un Reconstructed Southerners there are in this country or how many "Sophisticated" people in this country look on anyone who doesn't live on the East or Left coasts as "Rednecks", "Religous Nuts", " Gun Nuts" etc. We are the pot and Iraq is the kettle. Lets clean our own "Civil War" up first.

If we were doing as well in Iraq as they would have us believe, Bush would of had his meeting with al-Maliki in Baghbad with a full ticked tape parade following it.
al-Maliki is looking much like a token president only kept in power by the White House. I pray I'm wrong.

Americans are not infactuated with
this war anymore.
My God, don't the
idiots get it,68%
of Iraqis want us
out & so does
Al-Sadr (a nother Khomeni. If our troops want to fight a war bring them home & send them out to the inner city's where cocaine is preventlent & rurual America where Methamphemine labs are.

what I've seen is that it is pretty futile to try anything in iraq. it only costs the lives of our soldiers and appears to not be worth any additional lives of ours to try to achieve any sort of establishment of democracy. truly, they don't want us or democracy, either.

al-Maliki position is to get on his knees to say "please pretty pl;ease to al-Sadr and other factions. Come June I say its your and let's get the hell out of the Bush quagmire. Enough is enough.

I hear that Bush is soliciting funds for his musuem to be located at SMU in Dallas. Big bucks. He could save everyone money, time and effort if he just located it at Happpy Joe's Pizza. They could even honk the horn if it was a visitor's birthday.

excellent point!

Not only have we been able to convince the world that the Americans have no power to force our form of government on any other nation, but we have now given the extremists so much recognition that their numbers grow daily. It was a bad move and we should give up the ghost before we lose any more Americans. Ten years from now when the Europeans finally wake up and see what has happened to thier continent and way of life, then and only then, will they see the folly of thier retinence to help the Americans defend them. The middle east is a mess and always will be because we made them needed because of the oil. Once they had money to burn, they became popular because they could buy American. But that all flopped.

Amazing. Suddenly, Iraq can sustain and potect itself by June. May I ask how this miracle can be achieved, when every supporter, critic and pundit acknowledges that Iraq is now worse than ever?
As for our presidents statement "He's the right guy for Iraq." It was their third face-to-face meeting since al-Maliki took power about six months ago."...Mr. al-Maliki might want to speak to "Brownie" about the President support statements.
Pleeeese, give us all a break.

Any solution to the civil war in Iraq will have to come from within Iraq and without the influence of the United States.The Sunni,Shiite& Kurdish warlords will have to shake hands or continue to destroy each other.This will get real old real quick without the US taking the blount of the pain

We have two options:

1) stay and count the body bags
2) leave and let Iraq create their own future

Iraq's future is entirely in their hands but I suspect their chances for survival will be far greater without the US presence in Iraq.

AMMAN, Jordan - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said Thursday that his country's forces would be able to assume security command by June 2007.

That does mean Iraq will be ready to assume the SECURITY RESPONSIBLITY for the country by
June 2007? He is saying he wants ALL of the IRAQ SECURITY FORCES turned over to HIS CONTROL
by June 2007. Currently the US controls all but one or two of the Iraqi Security Force Brigades.
Get the translation correct! He said nothing about US Troops leaving.

Jim Frego
Grants Pass, OR

The current Iraqi government cannot sustain itself without protection and the training of its military. You all have short memories… This is a WAR ON ISLAMO FACISM, it’s a war on terror, and it’s going to have many fronts. Iraq is just one of them. Once the Coalition pulls out of Iraq, Al Sadr and his 40,000 militia will topple the current government and join forces with IRAN. Well have two Sociopath’s who want to destroy the United States and kill all Christians (Infidels). And once Al Sadr is in power they will plot to destroy the United States like they've wanted to for the past 50 years. They will plot to kill more infidels and all the so called peaceful Muslims in this country will be swayed to take up arms against you. All you bleeding heart liberals will get your troops back, but they'll be heading back out again once one of our cities is nuked. Keep crying and whining about our troops overseas… It’s what they were hired for, it’s what they get paid for, and it’s what they freely signed up for. Our Military was not drafted and everyone that’s in it right now freely signed on the dotted line. When you join the Military there is a chance that you will have to fight in a war. Would you rather have the fighting here on our soil? Would you rather have our shopping malls blowing up, cars blowing up, people being shot in the streets:? Granted some of this does happen but not on the scale it will escalate to once they bring the fight to us, and it’s coming… Hopefully none of you ACLU loving, Bleeding Heart, Crying Liberals who wrote in this Blog are in the city that gets hit. You people need to quit putting down the President, putting down our Government, and stand behind our troops

We must prevail in Iraq! What else? For America to withdraw would leave Iraq and its neighbors vulnerable to the absolute control of the jihadists, who will certainly, in very short order, move on to America. I say, slay the dragon where it is rearing its ugly head.

I am all for the Iraqi people taking bullets for their own country rather than American soldiers.

What I am not for is in any way allowing Iraq to become a haven for terrorists. I feel that we need to maintain a presense in Iraq (bases), but not have our soldiers patrolling the streets. Let the Iraqis start patrolling their own streets in June, make that PM stick to his word and maybe Georgie boy can save some face.

Yesterday, Brian announced the thousands of Iraqi's are leaving Iraq....that is just great....our young men are dying there, and the people who they are helping to be free are running away...waiting for others to die for the cause, and then come back and reap the benefits...what cowards.....I wish Brian would have mentioned this....it's a disgrace.

seems like the bush gang thought they were going into iraq kill a few thousand stone throwing iraqi,.declare victory move on to another arab country.he thought watching palestinians throw stones were the only weapon the arabs had.hezbollah showed israel what it feels like to have someone shoot back at them instead of a bunch of rock throwing arabs.the israelis then went back to killing the rock throwing palestinians

Nobody asked the Iraqi people if they wanted this.

Many experts said the region would not rise up if we deposed Saddam.

But Bush went in anyway.

People who insult the Iraqis for not playing along with the game being imposed upon them are pure evil. Such arrogance from someone who has probably never left the country...to assume that our way is the only way and those that don't accept it are lesser people.

Eldon,MO - Well said. They cut and run, we stay and die for THEM and they come back and reap the benefits. You cannot GIVE people something they do not want, are not willing to die for themselves - and it is clear as has been for centuries - in that part of the world they only want freedom to kill. If they can't kill outsiders, they kill each other - what a bloodbath and for whom and for what? Bush opened Pandora's box, turned them loose and now who can ever bring any civility to those who prefer war to peace, death to life, poverty to prosperity? Do we see their fellow Muslims worldwide screaming loudly, marching and waving banners condemning this bloodthirsty bunch of killers? Nope. But we all saw them protesting and burning and creating civil unrest over a harmless cartoon that neither killed nor maimed anybody on either side. An imagined insult from a silly cartoon I guess is more important than the useless killing, torture, maiming and destruction they do to themselves and anybody who comes near them. Are we surprised to hear Bush praise the PM and say he is doing a great job? Right in keeping with "Helluva job, Brownie" and "Rummy." Thank goodness he doesn't have a complete rubber stamped Republican Congress to back him anymore - thank you America for finally beginning to wake up.

We should have taken down Sadr a year ago when it was proposed by the men in the field. Instead, it was shot down because we wanted the elections to take place instead. So we allowed him to grow and gain more followers. Now it's too late to take him out they say.

Either go in there and shoot up, arrest and bomb the hell out of those who are causing chaos in that country or get the hell out. I could care less if the Iraqi President doesn't want us to attack Sadr. There's a reason he doesn't want us to, he got elected because of the support of that violent group.

I'm a Dem and didn't want the war, still don't want the war, but we've created a bigger, more dangerous problem. Forget that stay the course crap and go get those SOBs or take our troops out of that civil war.