Sending more U.S. troops to Iraq is a bad idea but what can we do at this point?

Some questions had been asked regarding the alternative to the President Bush's new Iraq Policy plan. Here is my attempt to answer those questions.

Q: So what do we do?

A: Withdraw. Not immediately but slowly. Set a time and stick with it. I prefer no longer than later this year.

Q: I think popular opinion turned against this war, not because it was wrong AND stupid, but because it wasn't a slam dunk win.

A: Unfortunately, I think you're quite correct. People need to stop thinking of this as a sport and stop using the terms like win and lose.

On a larger scale, this isn't just a war against a few local insurgents but a war against global terrorism. And in that regard, the world has been fighting this war for ages because it's an ongoing problem. If people can understand this then they can start thinking clearly and would be willing to accept withdrawing the troops as regrouping, not losing.

Q: But we created that mess- shouldn't we fix it?

A: Absolutely. By regrouping and start a committee with a new batch of people who can bring new, fresh ideas to the table - preferably, someone who has been against the war from the beginning (i.e. Barack Obama) and/or someone who has no connections to Lockheed Martin, Halliburton, oil companies, and Saudi royal family.

Q: I hear a lot of congressional Dems calling for withdrawal- but how many of them are just on the same bandwagon they were on when it was time to give the goober-in-chief carte blanche?

A: Politicians are people just like us. And unfortunately, they bought into the Bush Administration's scare tactics just as majority of Americans did. If I could, I would hang them all but we need some of these people who can now see that the invasion was wrong and willing to do something to help correcting it.

Q: I don't profess to have any answers, but how do you run roughshod over a country, destroy its infrastructure, completely destabilize an already fragile set up, and then claim- well we "gave" you freedom, now you're on your own? I'm not talking about goober's "stay the course" crap- but we made this bed...

A: We can retrieve and slowly bring back the troops. It's possible that at some point, the troops would be sent back providing that the mission is specific and has a clear goal that can be achieved in a short period of time.

What will happen to Iraq? I have no answer but I can't see it being worse than it is right now.

I'm thinking that to fight terrorism in a long term, a country needs to first strengthen its own by focusing on the key areas such as economy, spending, education, health care, environment, etc. As it is, the US aren't in its best shape with so many diversions created by the Bush Administration.

America needs to work on gaining back the trust of the people around the world. It needs to gain back the status of the leader of the free world - not in term of the military power but to be, once again, a country that people everywhere can look up to and a country that people are willing to follow (didn't happen during the Iraq invasion and no, I didn't forget Poland).