Leave Iraq - It IS a Civil War - And Can Chaney

Sorry to say, Dick Cheney and his neo-conservative buddies really screwed it up. They saw a victorious U.S. in Iraq, with cheering throngs of Iraqis fervently embracing democracy while the oil wells pumped money into their revitalized economy. Others with much experience in the region saw a nation deprived of the dictator who held it together by force, disintegrating in a paroxysm of sectarian violence as the oil pipelines dried up due to sabotage. Cheney was wrong, and he and his pals have cost the United States over $300 billion in direct costs of the war and far more financial pain due to oil price escalations and interest on that $300 billion for who knows how long...to say nothing about over 2,500 Americans killed and over 15,000 wounded. All for nothing. Iraq has disintegrated into civil war, and Iran stands to be the primary beneficiary. The Republican members of congress are slowing twisting in the wind due to their foolish support of Bush's big gamble.

Time to get out and let the Iraqi government own the problem! It's obvious the "build the Iraqi defense forces and police" strategy will fail due to the rampant sectarianism, the need to settle old scores with Saddam's people, and the endemic corruption. Democracy was only a dream, dreamed by deluded Republican idealists who never considered wearing the uniform of this country. The Iraqis are going to settle this on their own terms, bloody as those terms may be. Perhaps the final "lesson learned" from Bush's escapade will be that the world sees just how ruthless and bloody a civil war between two Muslim sects can be. And maybe other Muslim countries will be so outraged and sickened by the carnage that they are motivated to stop their idiotic terrorism - both internal and external. We can only hope...

Oh, I almost forgot. Shouldn't Bush fire Cheney after the Republicans lose at least one house of Congress in the fall, due largely to Iraq? Small price to pay for the Big Dick! What we really need is a good excuse to put him in jail for a long time. Ken Lay's ENRON was small potatoes compared with Big Dick's Iraq Debacle!