Iraq's future and America's withdrawal

It seems a very famous blogger visited this blog and left the following comments. I did not want his comments or my reply to "get lost" as comments in posts often do. He begins: As futile as it may be lately to try to just leave a point to consider, which disagrees sharply with the post written above, I must try: In the end, the Iraqis must be willing to shoulder the responsibility for "nation building". We're past the point where shooting people matters. If the Iraqis choose nation over tribe, society over sect, then Iraq will be a success. If they do not, then it will be a failure. It is their choice, and not our own. The most interesting part of the ISG (to me) was the way they pointed at the "spin" on the statistics and polls regarding casualties and attacks, as well as popular opinion. I'm afraid it's too late to unring the bell. Three strategies: i) cut our losses to a bare minimum and begin a phased pullout ii) continue the current "plan" iii) increase troops and increase pressure... The problem with the last two is -- "When will we ever know we've done all we can?" At what point do we say, "Look, we've been here longer than we were in WW2, and it's time for us to go, it's your country and you'll either fight for it or lose it"? You must admit the possibility that we can't MAKE them win this thing. And so if that's a possibility, when does it cross over to a probability? To an inevitability? There will always be persons like yourself who will say, "If only we'd stayed a little longer, put in a few more troops..." But it won't matter. It's already lost. A reply: Yes, the Iraqis do have to make the decision. I'm not certain we need concern ourselves that "we've done all we could". It is their choice. My disgust is with the ISG and the political motivation behind it to harm President George W. Bush further. [The beef goes back a long way and it is between Mr. Baker and the former President Bush and VP Cheney. See article referenced by Frank Gaffey, Jr.] We are still in Germany - at their request. No, we cannot MAKE the Iraqis win this thing. It is ultimately their nation to save or to reject as a democracy. They have already lost on the "democratic republic notion" in that they have voted for Sharia Law to be their guiding base. Brigitte Gabriel likens the Middle East to tribes with flags. We do not seem to understand or appreciate that their internal, sectarian "hatreds" go back over a thousand of year. Frankly, if the world didn't need the oil in the region, I'd say, "let them all go to heck and keep them out of our universities and out of our nation" ONLY because of the inherent incompatibility of Sharia Law and any form of representative democratic republicanism. On Iraq, you've got me wrong when you say, that there will always be folks like me who will say, "If only we'd stayed a little longer, put in a few more troops..." That's like the socialist elites in our newly elected Congress who say, "our socialism will work." [where every place else it has failed miserably doing great damage to the citizenry. The socialist themes found within Islamic regimes are similar in my view.] But your position is "But it won't matter. It's already lost." It may or may not be lost for the Iraqis. I just have two points here regarding your view. One - Many of our elected officials have such hatred for President George W. Bush that they have vowed by word and deed to cripple anything he has tried to do in 99% of his efforts - Iraq being only one. Now they will work to undo good things he has done. They have (along with the help of many Americans) effectively ended his presidency perhaps and some would argue with the inevitable passage of the amnesty bill for ALL illegals that they will change the direction of America unalterably. They, these elected officials, not President Bush, have damaged American credibility and honor. I have been reading the English-speakers approved edition of the Qur'an. When the Democrats pass the hate-speech legislation authored by John Conyers, HR 288, our freedom to discuss Islam and anything related to Islamic Imperialism and the movement for world dominance - to discuss this in any manner - will be stopped. Our freedom of speech will be effectively over in America. When we move into the realm of legislating what one "can't" do, we move toward Sharia Law. Should this come to pass, it will be at that point that I will have a "Qur'anic Quotation of the Day" with words taken directly form the Qur'an allowing that book to speak for Islam itself and for the subservient and distainful views of Unbelievers put forth in that book as well as the view of women as second class or worse. Second - I see nothing in the Qur'an that is compatible with the concepts and principles associated with our Bill of Rights and with a democratic republic. We can leave Iraq whenever we choose - the ramifications are far more expansive than "what happens in Iraq". On my blog, I draw the line with folks who are verbally abusive to me personally - you know the usual liberal name-calling tripe designed to stop any important and reasonable discussion cold. Iraq may be lost; the situation there may not be reversable. That does not make our going in there wrong. My argument is with the ISG, the elected "leaders", the mainstream media, and others who haven't even given the effort a chance simply because of their hatred of President George W. Bush. My greater concern is for the greater Middle East and, frankly for Europe and stopping the march of global Islamic Imperialism which is actively bringing nations or parts of nations under Sharia Law one nation at a time violently and one law suit at a time in our case.