Syn,

Show me the money. If the Iraqis are so peaceful, why is there still an orgy of violence over there? Car bombs go off daily, our soldiers are under constant attack, and yet somehow these wonderful, peace-loving Iraqi people just can’t seem to put a stop to it.

Oh, I know, it’s just a few “bad apples,” right? Yeah, sure.

Look, most moderately informed people knew that when we invaded Iraq, there would be: (1) some local guerrilla resistance — all of our enemies have read the Vietnam playbook, and if you are a former regime member like “Chemical” Ali you are dead anyway, whether at our hands or those of your fellow Iraqis, so you might as well die fighting; (2) foreign jihadis streaming in from all over the Muslim world to attack us, just like they did in Soviet Afghanistan; and (3) agents of Iran, Syira, Saudi Arabia supporting (1) and (3) because those countries are threatened by the idea of peace and democracy.

But still, Iraq should have calmed down by now. We’ve been there for almost four years. I was patient for the first few, these things take time and it’s not going to be easy. No one thought that Iraq would look like Ohio in just three years, it’s a very underdeveloped and alien place. But by now, things should be quieting down, getting noticeably better. For example, by now, we should have been able to withdraw some troops. Even if Iraq had been a smashing success we’d need to station troops there for decades, but we shouldn’t need 100,000 in the country after three years.

It’s not working out. It’s time to pull out. I’d pull out TOMORROW if possible, not one additional American life is worth sacrificing over there.