Whether or not you agree with the foundation for the war in Iraq, the question of "do we stay or do we go" is a moot point.  I am appalled at how many otherwise intelligent people are calling for our withdrawal.

Have you noticed the mess over there?  And who created that mess?  Yes, that would be us, the Americans.

It's no longer relevant whether the war was right or not.  It no longer matters if you agreed with it or not.  It no longer matters if we were dragged there under false pretenses.

We — the all-inclusive we that must be used when America does something on this scale — we created the mess over there.  We toppled the existing government.  We annihilated the infrastructure.  To get out now is simply irresponsible.

Doing so would give rise to another Afghanistan, a breeding ground for terrorists, a nation out of control and ungoverned, a malicious little country with a lot of hate for Americans.  That hate would be from both the terrorists and those civilians we left in the hands of the terrorists when we vacated without cleaning up our own mess.

Don't be daft.  That's the most absurd thing I've ever heard in my life.  Your opinion of the war doesn't matter at this point, and it certainly has no bearing whatsoever on whether we should stay or not.  We took a relatively stable, sovereign nation and turned it into a war zone between Western and terrorist/insurgent forces.  To leave now would be unbelievably abhorrent.

Ah, but more than 2,000 American soldiers have died since we invaded, you say.  How many of our children must die before we bring them home?

Bah.  You are a simpleton, aren't you?

What about the more than 30,000 Iraqis who have died?  Have you stopped to consider them?  Could you see beyond your own selfish sense of patriotism to realize what we have done to those people?  And you would have us withdraw, leaving them in utter and complete turmoil, with death and destruction around every corner?

Any such thought is offensive.  At one time I agreed with the premise of going to war, feeling an imminent threat based on the lies.  Then I became angry as we discovered that we had been deceived, that evidence was fabricated, and that lies were told.  But it was too late by then, and surely even the most dense among us can now see that.  We cannot leave until the country is more stable, more able to control itself and secure its own cities and borders, more able to protect its own citizens, and more able to control radical elements which see another opportunity to enslave another country in hatred of the West.

I shudder to think how many more American lives will be lost in the process.  More importantly, I cannot fathom the Iraqi toll in life and property.  But we cannot leave.  Not now.  Not considering the mess we've made and would be leaving behind.  It's the same kind of mess we left behind in Afghanistan once we no longer needed to support the anti-Soviet movement.  We turned our backs on them, left them in widespread anarchy and desperation.

No, we cannot leave.  I am so very sorry, for the lives already lost and those that must be lost in order to complete the job, but we cannot leave.  Now much larger than just America, we must address the issues we created and we must return stability to that state.  There is no longer another option.