The only good choice regarding Iraq was to not invade in the first place. Now that President Bush has led us into this quagmire we are now left with trying to choose the least objectionable of our bad options. I believe we should set a timeline. This is what the majority of Americans want, and it is also what the Iraqis want. We need to start withdrawing our troops immediately and do it in such a way as to minimize the potential for genocide.

In order to tackle the Iraq problem you need to know some history first. The country of Iraq was created in 1920 by France and England. Unfortunately they gave no thought to the fact that the religious and ethnic groups in this new country hated each other intensely for generations. Since its creation Iraq has been held together by a series of dictators. Now that the last dictator is gone the only thing holding it together is the US military. We cannot build a nation out of Iraq. Only the Iraqis can. Let's bring our troops home.

We need to get our army out of Iraq. By ending our occupation of Iraq we will start to rebuild our tarnished image in the region. We then need to launch a full-blown national effort toward breaking our addiction to oil - an Apollo Project for energy independence. Once we are no longer addicted to Middle East oil we will no longer need to prop up repressive oil-rich dictatorships. Much of the hatred of America stems from our support of these repressive governments.

Let’s remember, Saddam Hussein was once protected by the U.S.A. - until he abruptly became our enemy. That abrupt change in status had nothing to do with the fact he was a brutal dictator, because he had been a brutal dictator the entire time we were protecting him.

Once we no longer need middle eastern oil, we will no longer be held hostage by this region of the world.

P.S. - Iraq will fall apart whether we leave now or a decade from now (or 100 years from now, as McCain suggested.) The Shia, Kurds, and Sunni hate each other and always have. Only a brutal dictator held Iraq together. Once the U.S. leaves - and we will eventually leave when our citizens decide we have sacrificed enough of our blood and treasure for George Bush's lies - Iraq will disintegrate into three ethnic factions battling for control of Iraq's oil. We need to let them work this out amongst themselves sooner rather than later.