Al Qaeda is in Pakistan as far as we know. The guys that we chased out of Afghanistan are now in Pakistan.

I’m dumbstruck.
(like most of the country.)

Absolutely unbelievable how many people can rationalize the unacceptable.

One more thing… Obama just won Vermont. A state not known for ” the young, the minorities and the poor”

Pakistan is not our ally in any real sense. Do you remember Osama Bin Laden? Contary to the McCain/Bush press briefings, Osama started this mess, not Saddam. Bin Laden is almost certainly living in Pakistan with the assistance/knowledge of Pakastani military. Funding ,resources and personnel for the 9/11 attacks came from the Afghan/Pakistan border, not Iraq. Culturally, pre-war Iraq was a lot more similar to us than Pakistan is now… So George Bush’s decision to make Pakistan an “ally” has only weakened our position.

On “we are winning”- The daily carnage is down from the unbelievable levels of a year ago, so somehow you have equated this situation with winning. But please listen to your guy, McCain. He’s actually right. To win will take a hundred years. The colonial method of controlling uppity countries is way out of fashion. Let’s see… France is out of Algeria, the UK is out of India, we are out of South East Asia, the Italians are out of everywhere… do you get the point? Even if we attain some type of military stalemate ( which we will define as victory!), in the long run everyone wants self-determination. And when the day comes that the indigenous population kicks us out, we will have spent a fortune in live and money ( and positive karma), with nothing to show for it. To answer your last question, how will it help to leave? 1) It will save us a ton of money. 2) It will restore our morality. 3) It’s always best to face inevitable sooner rather than later 4) It will force us to address the real issue – our lack of a energy policy. Imagine Saddam Hussien’s Iraq in a different way: as a small African country with no natural resources. Would we have cared about Saddam’s brutality to his own people. No. Would we have invaded. No. Now imagine our America in a different way: as a rich country with independent access to energy (not from the middle east).Would we care about Iraq, Iran, Israel, Palastine, Syria, etc. No!
Weapons of Mass Destruction, Islam vs. Christianity, Global War on Terror, the Crazy Iranians, yada yada yada… YOU ARE BEING PLAYED. If and when we address our energy problems, all of these concepts will be thrown into the garbage pail of history.