If we leave now, while al-Qaeda is strong and operatives from Iran are working to supply weapons and personnel to religious factions,

Six years after 9/11, a tiny group of religious extremists without a tenth of the support and firepower as the Allied Forces are still “strong,” and are fighting us to a standstill. Iran, a nation which had been on the verge of handing its future over to its young moderates, instead became overrun–AGAIN–by the hardline extremists who preached resistance against American occupation of Muslims. This is the legacy of the Bush administration.

and the government of Iraq collapses or Iraq turns into a killing field, then our sacrifices will truly have been in vain.

Iraq already is a killing field and the Iraqi government is a mess of schisms, easily undermined by militia strongmen like Muqtada al-Sadr. They had to be convinced by us that it would not be a good idea to take a vacation in the midst of this violence. Our sacrifices thus far have been in vain, the only question is how much more we’re willing to sacrifice. This, too, is a legacy of the Bush administration.

And we will have proven to al-Qaeda that we are indeed paper tigers without the will to fight.

Instead, we have demonstrated that we have the will to fight somebody who posed no immediate threat instead of finishing the job in Afghanistan. We’re not paper tigers, but we’ve spent so many resources hunting the wrong prey.

And will have demonstrated that the US isn’t worth a shit as an ally; when the going gets tough or when we make a mistake, we cut and run.

The Iraqi government and the Iraqi people believe that our presence in Iraq is doing at least as much harm as good, and they want us to set a timetable to leave. Our ignorance and condescension to them of these requests already demonstrates that we are not good allies. Our fuckups at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere in the country demonstrate that we are not good allies. The going got tough in part because of us, not in spite of us.

Al Qaida is emboldened already by our bullheaded refusal to swerve from a losing strategy. They have recruited and trained a brand new crop of Mohammed Attas and Osama bin Ladens throughout said losing strategy, and your solution to combat that is to do more of the bloody same because changing course is somehow as good as “surrender.”

Even football teams know that you don’t call nothing but run plays against a stout defensive line. But if we do the equivalent of that in Iraq, it’s “giving up.”

That kind of boneheaded thinking? That’s the Bush legacy.

Any person involved in committing or planning terrorist attacks against the American people becomes an enemy of this country and a target of American justice.

Any person, organization or government that supports, protects or harbors terrorists is complicit in the murder of the innocent and equally guilty of terrorist crimes. Any outlaw regime that has ties to terrorist groups and seeks or possesses weapons of mass destruction is a grave danger to the civilized world and will be confronted.

And anyone in the world, including the Arab world, who works and sacrifices for freedom has a loyal friend in the United States of America.

… And we will stand with the new leaders of Iraq as they establish a government of, by and for the Iraqi people.

The transition from dictatorship to democracy will take time, but it is worth every effort. Our coalition will stay until our work is done and then we will leave and we will leave behind a free Iraq.

The battle of Iraq is one victory in a war on terror that began on September the 11th, 2001 and still goes on.” – President Bush, May 1, 2003

The answer is, we will leave Iraq when the nation has a stable government and a military and police force capable of neutralizing any threat posed by terrorists or operatives from rogue governments.

The terrorists know this, so they are doing everything they can to force us to abandon our commitment to the nascent Iraqi government.

If we leave now, while al-Qaeda is strong and operatives from Iran are working to supply weapons and personnel to religious factions, and the government of Iraq collapses or Iraq turns into a killing field, then our sacrifices will truly have been in vain. And we will have proven to al-Qaeda that we are indeed paper tigers without the will to fight. And will have demonstrated that the US isn’t worth a shit as an ally; when the going gets tough or when we make a mistake, we cut and run.

If that’s the legacy that your side wishes to embrace, then go for it.

* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedman_%28unit%29

I’ve tried that. I get reminded that Saddam was a monster and leftists have killed 70 kajillion zillion people throughout history.