The week of Saddam Hussein's execution comes confirmation of the 3,000th dead American serviceman in Iraq. The juxtaposition brings to the forefront the contrasting outcomes of the Iraq war. On the one hand, the U.S. removed a tyrant from power and brought him to justice before his former subjects. On the other hand, the lives of 3,000 Americans, and more than $300 billion, have been spent to liberate Iraq, establish democracy, look for WMDs, stop the next 9/11, and myriad other rationalizations that fall in and out of vogue. "Do Americans somehow place higher value on the lives of their soldiers now?," an Associated Press piece wonders. That's a nice thought, but what's more likely happening is that Americans don't care to endure casualties when they are endured not for the just national interest. Rather than extract ourselves from an unwinnable situation--at least unwinnable from the standpoint of making Iraq an outpost of Western-style freedom and democracy--some congressmen want to further entrench America in Iraq. Bad idea. Iraqis don't want Americans in Iraq. Americans don't want Americans in Iraq. Bush's war in Iraq has lasted longer than Roosevelt and Truman's war in Japan and Germany. That's because defeating Germans and Japanese is an easier task than making pluralistic Westerners out of Muslim Arabs. Wars fought for abstract goals should never be fought. It's a concrete world we live in, not cloudland. Hussein's execution (and the tragedy of 3,000 dead Americans) suggests that it's time to declare VI Day and leave Iraq to the Iraqis.

Agreed. Argeed. Agreed. Agreed. Agreed and agreed.

I'm sure the semantics of why we're there could be argued, but our troops are a defensive force and our young men should not be put in harms way for what has developed into a policing / social work oriented mission.

NOT ONE MORE!!!