Now is the time for a fixed timetable.

Step 1. We leave December 1, 2007. Give the government fair warning.
Step 2. Let every Middle Eastern country know that we will continue to support Israel.
Step 3. Iraq can sink or swim. They had 3 years to figure it out with us providing security. Now, they just have to survive like Detroit.
Step 4. Politely point out that just like North Korea is no threat to us, neither is Iraq or Iran...however, those countries are a threat to the others in their area. Good luck Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey.
Step 5. Until we leave, we use brute force to deal with any Iranians or Syrians crossing borders. We ensure that Iraq's oil is capable of being harvested and shipped. We make sure that Iraq's government is provided with whatever ordinance it wants for its military so that it can secure itself.
Step 5. We leave.

/Saudi Arabia doesn't even have a diplomatic presence in Iraq but Iran does.

Blathering Idjut: ANY plan to make things work in Iraq would be build on the assumption that said plan would be executed correctly and competently by the Bush administration.

Or that the freakin' Iraqis would act semi-civilized. Americans, and the West try to improve life for themselves individually, and their fellow man collectively. The rest of the world prefers status quo and does not wish to push for better things for fear that it might get worse.

There is a fundamental difference between the Western thought and Middle Eastern, African and Asian thought. We are different than them.

Its sad, but I have come to the conclusion that democratic freedom is not something that is compatible with some cultures and peoples.

mathmatix: the administration refuses to acknowledge issues and thinks a troop surge is the answer.

It would be a possible answer. But 20,000 is just more targets. 100,000 is a stabilizing force.

If we can't send 100,000 more, we need to leave and cut our losses.

Tatsuma: I say we bomb Tehran just to make sure

My plan does not disallow this. We might as well use our small nukes. Unused weapons are useless weapons.

orrinbloquy: After three years of creating Police Academy troops, what magic do you care to wave over the process to make all this work? Details, please.

That is the crux of it. After 3 years, we still get..in ever increasing damage...roadside bombs, car bombs, etc... Most of the targets were our troops initially, then police recruits, now its civilians. So, we have helped some. We and our recruits are protected but the truly innocent are dying. And the rate is increasing.

And our new recruits are not helping patrol their own country.

Us leaving may result in chaos, but it might result in a stabilizing force when we announce a deadline for our leaving.

I never wanted the deadline before. But Iraq is just not picking up their end of the bargain.

elchip: Sounds like they're not army material :P

Well, the military types were, um, killed or routed a few years ago. Oooops.

Great. We have slightly over 100,000 troops stationed in Germany, Italy, and the UK. We have 1.1 million in the United States. We have 6,000 in other Middle Eastern countries. I know there are rules about combat fatigue, but barring that, why can't we use some more of them?

Rumsfeld wanted lean and mean. He didn't understand that we can outfight anyone with lean and mean, we just can't out-stabilize them with lean and mean. Sure, send them over there.

But, we get resistance from Congress for speaking about increasing our presence. How big a squawk would there be if Bush said, "We are sending 100,000 more soldiers over there to beat down the resistance and hopefully not get a bunch of innocents killed, or themselves killed. Thanks for electing me."

Tatsuma: At this point, there's only one thing to do. We must nuke them from orbit. It's the only solution.

Now that China has the ability to destroy our orbital nukes, we must use them in a first strike on China. We can't waste them on one terrorist. However, our ICBMs are just sitting in those silos. Might as well fire 'em up. Russia would wet their pants if they still work.

Tatsuma: Russia portrayed villains so many times on tv and movies, we should bomb them just to make sure anyway

Their accent is sinister...almost as sinister as Germans. We should hit all of the old Eastern Block...just to make sure.