If we all want to be right let us remember why we were there in the first place. Its not like we just appeared overnight for no reason.

WMD's

There were none. So one might ask, why did we not just pick up and leave because we were not ready to occupy the country? This is a legitimate question. WE ruined a country's infra structure and totally disrupted its institutions, as horrible as they were under Saddam. WE thought the Iraqis would somehow self assemble. WE were unable to pick up and leave after making a horrible mess of everything. So WE stayed and attempted to create a government of our liking, one that would have some sort of rule of law, a country with some sort of respect for the individual yet fair to all. This became a very difficult problem as we vastly underestimated a devastated country's ability to unite.

So I will ask again since we have been over this a number of times: What is so difficult to understand? The problems that we face today in Iraq, or the future, or in the past?

The plan is now to try and create some sort of stability and then get the hell out. We have set the government of Iraq up for a very difficult mission (to stop their people from killing each other... please, lets not confuse what the vast majority of the killings are about, they are sectarian in nature).

So what is difficult to understand or get right? WE have not got this right and will not get this right (there is never a perfect solution). We hope to get out with as few deaths as possible and leave some sort of stability for the Iraqis to build on.

I believe the above is a good summary of this debacle. The debate now is about the timing of the withdrawl.