Quiting...the US Military forced to loose?

[Nat Wilcox]

Have you not been listening the current President or its Administration? If there is one thing they have been forthwith since the beginning about is the long term commitment that is needed.

I wish the current President and Administration the best of luck, but you and I certainly agree that a truly sensible strategic handling of Iraq will necessarily extend well beyond their tenure. I try to avoid talking about the current Prez and Admin whenever it doesn't seem germaine, given the passions those folks stir. Please interpret my omission of them as neither positive nor negative commentary on them or their strategies, but rather avoiding unnecessary fireworks where possible.

.Biden is no Mecca to justice and fortitude. Biden's only enemy is the Republican Party.

In the last Dem debate, Biden seemed to me to be the only one of the Dem bunch who didn't simply throw red meat out to the audience; he seemed more realistic (and unpopularly so, given the audience of such a debate) than any of the other Dem candidates. He was definitely not on the same page as (say) Richardson or Clinton.

I'm trying to form a sense of which one of these characters--Dems or Republicans--is perhaps worth supporting. And, for me, some strategic seriousness in their thinking about Iraq will be key. I don't know why I should expect such seriousness in a televised debate...or perhaps in any public announcement during primary season, since at this stage of the political game their most important audience is their "base". Perhaps we must be stuck waiting until after nominations are sown up to hear anything remotely serious.

Yet Biden did sound strategically serious in the last debate...To me he publicly posed the right political question (essentially, "How do we proceed so that I don't have to end up sending your current ten-year-old son back to Iraq eight years from now"), a question none of the other Dem candidates even seemed willing to pose, much less entertain. Biden's answer to that question may be wrong (for instance, Turkey may not stand for a loose Federal way out so perhaps that political vision for Iraq is flawed from the get-go), but any candidate willing to even pose it publicly at a current Dem debate is showing some political guts, I think.

Of course, the real reason I asked is that y'all may know of something serious coming out of any of the candidates...and I would be interested in anything like that.

[Culpeper]

The Democrats are trying to make Iraq something of importance in par with FDR politics during the Great Depression. As a strategic platform they want to exploit the poor at home and then discuss Iraq. That tells me they don't have a commitment. And the current Administration has made it clear that a war should not be fought with Presidential tenures in mind. The Democrats, as a platform, have never come up with a plan themselves for small wars. They wasted nearly eight years complaining about the current Administration's conduct of the war. They don't have a plan today anymore than they had a plan during the last race for President. As for the Republicans. Well, they seem to be laying low as a tactical platform. Let the Democrats argue nearly every night looking at YouTube snips and showing all of us just how unprepared they are for the future of this nation. I'm more concerned with amputations of casualties being twice as high as those of the Vietnam Conflict than I am about some bum on YouTube who's primary objective is to stay on SSI disability income and keep their Internet provider so they can get on moveon.org or democraticunderground.com. The Democrats have to stay away from battle. They simply do not have that type of leadership. As for their prime objective, even WalMart came up with a better plan for medication for everyone. Their plan was very simple. Charge $4 for most generic prescription. That is better coverage than I have and I work for state government. This tells me that health care for everyone can be best handled by organizations that are not a political entity. This sort of thing leaves the Democrats high-and-dry. In fact, I have not heard a single Democratic hopeful commend WalMart for providing affordable prescription medications to all Americans.