Originally Posted by Villages Kahuna

There was lots of conversation on the issue of negotiating with the enemy during the course of the recently-concluded presidential campaign. But has anyone noticed what's going on right now...as I write this?

The generals have reported that "conditions on the ground" are such that the significant downsizing of our troop deployment to Iraq can begin. But apparently there has to be some formal agreement reached on the conditions of our withdrawal with the Iraqi government. That agreement then has to be approved by the Iraqi parliament or congress or whatever they're called. Don't ask me why there has to be such an agreement, but apparently someone in Washington agrees that there does. So we're involved in hot and heavy negotiations with the Iraqi government and other elected officials.

You know...they're the ones even more politically and religiously divided than the U.S. Congress. It's their "congress" that has a higher absentee rate than the worst of our inner-city schools. That's the group who decided to go on vacation for six weeks or so right in the middle of the most critical part of the surge. Remember the surge? That was where we put our young soldiers in harm's way to give the Iraqi politicians the time to reach a "political solution". But how could they reach a political solution? They decided they were all tuckered out, so they went on vacation.

In any event, now we want to bring our soldiers home. But we have to get the agreement of the Iraqis on the conditions of our withdrawal? Forgive my misunderstanding, but aren't they the enemy?

This war was mismanaged at its beginning, in the middle and now, it appears, at the end. Ridiculous!