Have you forgotten about the Madrid trains ? The London subways ?

Not to mention the plots that haven’t come off or have been interdicted (planes with liquid bombs, all the bombs that haven’t gone off) because other peace loving Euros besides yourself have been on top of these guys ?

Just last week, bin laden’s charming 16 YO son vowed that Britain must be destroyed.

Bet you didn’t think the butcher in your own backyard, Slobodan Milosevic, needed attention, either.

Best regards from this eurofriend, Freedom Always.

PS – I’m sorry for the long “comment”. One last note: fred: what exactly is the US government definition on bootin’ the beast’s neck? The same one has in 1990? The US should be more carefull with foreign policy… it might help to prevent deadly surprises like Al Qaeda… or recurring wars in the same country. Peace is more profitable

Perhaps the most important reason for having bases in Iraq is the omnipresent threat of the Mullahocracy in Tehran. And if you lack sufficient knowledge as to why this matters, what do you suppose the world and the Middle East are going to look like with Iran having powerful influence in Iraq AND having nuclear weapons.

Iran is DESPERATE to get us out of the neighborhood. So much so that it has been furiously arming, funding, and training the insurgency during the last few years.

Iran is the Beast. If you have your boot on the Beast’s neck, should you just remove it and walk away, or should you snap its neck?

The awakenings, such as in Anbar, have demonstrated that in Iraq tribal ties often outweigh sectarian affiliation. Several powerful tribes contain both Sunnis and Shia; these tribes intend to provide candidates for the fall elections, and have a good chance of winning.

Maybe you just need to meet different people.

I can’t imagine not caring about the Iraqis’ future. I can even recall their past (pre Saddam) for much of which they have been a people of high accomplishment.

Of course, most Iraqis (and Iranians for that matter) are under age 25 and wouldn’t necessarily recall their countries prior to The Assassin (or The Mullahs).

And Iraq really is the place that “those who perpetrated 911 and many other horrific events before and after” have been eager to set up shop, in the true heart of Islam, Mesopotamia. And you really should be glad that that little plan has been substantially messed with. At least for the time being.

And you should hate to see that all thrown away if al-Maliki really isn’t up to the task of leadership integrating all the Iraqi people, including the few Christians still left alive.

All of our boys lives lost for what?-Iraq to be ruled by 10,000 islamists instead of 1?

No, Iraq will be ruled by 10,000 islamists instead of 1 guy that was mostly secular and completely crazy. It may be much better for the Shi’ites, worse for the Sunni and the same hell for the Kurds. Hoepfully, even if the place does become ruled by 10,000 islamists, they will be less inclined to attack their neighbors and cause us headaches. I doubt that democracy will flourish there, because their religion doesn’t fit with the concept that you should be an independent thinker (much like the Christian Church 500 years ago). It was only with the Enlightenment and the Church’s own kind of enlightenment that made our modern democracy possible. The psychology and philosophies changed BEFORE 1776 and whole generations were raised to think for themselves, before we founded our democracy. Iraq has not been so lucky, though, perhaps in 20, 50 or 100 years, they will also have some sort of Muslim enlightenment.

Until then, the people will vote the way their religious leaders say and the democratically elected leader will be under their thumb. Ick.