dmp and csm: I respect your soldierly attitude, guys.

I also understand that when you're in the middle of a shooting war, doubt and hesitation are bad because it could get you killed. I know that you have to grit your teeth and block out extraneous stuff and concentrate on the job at hand.

I'm trying to get you to step back for a minute and look at this Iraq thing with a more detached eye.

The mission was fucked from the start. The generals told Bush and Rummy we'd need at least twice as many troops as we had to do what they wanted to do. Bush and Rummy ignored that.

The mission was carried out based on flawed intel. There was enough doubt about that WMD stuff that this operation should never have gone forward.

Finally those idiots had no clue....no frickin' clue....what would happen once they deposed Saddam Hussein. But they should have known that the Shiite and Sunni elements would start going after one another once Saddam was deposed.

And now, you guys want to try and rescue this operation. But there's no way to save it. We need to cut our losses and get out. Bush is persisting with this effort because he wants to rescue his legacy (good luck on that one!).

Why the hell are you guys persisting? "Because we've already lost good people" is not a reason to continue with this mess.