We should all hope that the Iraqi government, military, and police have learned a lot from the time that the U.S. has been occupying their country, and that they will be able to keep a level of peace and democracy that was the point of our troops being there (at least after we found no W.M.D.s, of course).

If that doesn’t happen, then the thousands of U.S. soldiers that have died in Iraq for Bush’s dream of spreading democracy did so in vain.

The bombings and violence will increase. Iraqis will not be able to control their own security. That’s what happened before Sadam and that’s what will happen after Sadam. The good citizens of Iraq won’t carry guns around and hurt people. That’s why they are good citizens. The bad citizens will. One person with an automatic weapon can control a lot of people. The bad guy’s don’t have anything to fear now.

It will worsen the conditions in the US. The skills they learned vaguely have any use in the local work force. There are no jobs- or the jobs they take will leave others without a job. Hopefully there is a mechanism to relocate - the many of them that were criminals who took war over jail time for a sentence - to relocate them to pakastan or elsewhere.

Violence and general chaos will probably not increase significantly — at least not for a while. There is an optimistic reason for this belief, and a cynical one as well.

Optimistically, Iraqi security forces have had a lot more training and are much better prepared to assume control of their own operations. Pessimistically, our withdrawal can be looked at as a cultural skin graft that probably won’t “take.” We have been fruitlessly attempting to impose the concept and practice of Western democracy on a culture that doesn’t understand it, has never had it, and may not even want it. My guess is that you won’t see the streets flooded with sobbing and hair-tearing Iraqis when we finally pull out.

Things may look reasonably stable for a period, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see very little change, other than the name of the next dictatorial regime, not many years down the road. Bottom line: we had no business being there, and the sooner we cut our losses and get out, the better.

I wish nothing but the best for the Iragis. Whether or not a democracy works really is their choice, not ours. We cannot control the destiny of all peoples. Hell, we can’t even control our own policians.

The facts are that the United States with Democrats in the majority was able to raise some 15 million Armed Force personnel during WWII. The Democrats were also able to deploy nearly 500,000 military personnel at the high point in Vietnam. During Gulf War I the allies had nearly 500,000 personnel in harms way. During Gulf War II the United States has not deployed over 250,000 in Iraq to this writers knowledge. There is the ongoing War in Afganistan and a growing Communist disguised as socialist problem in Africa, South America, and Europe. To compound this problem Fascism is growing in Russia, the former Soviet States and Europe. The Western hemisphere has its own Nazi problem right here in America. So what are we going to fight with? The Republicans frankly could not or would not raise military pay to a level that attracted men or women. It was an embarassment that the Congress either had not served in the military nor were their families. It was a further embarassment that Cuba would treat our 9/11 wounded but the Congress would not small wonder no one wanted to serve. So comes a fact men are cheaper than equipment to Congress yet equipment wins wars. So are we going to put the equipment in action or waste more men and women? I suggest we raise taxes on the rich who got us into this mess with trade to pay for the grim situation we are in. It is them or us and they continue to support them at our expense in Mexico, China, and with foreign oil. It is time to take care of our own.

It’s a great day for Iraq and proof that democracy in the Arab world is possible. I’m as proud of them as I am the thousands of Americans and others who made this huge step possible.

It wasn’t so long ago that looking to Iraq as a model for anything was considered laughable. Now even Iranians are asking themselves why they too can’t have self determination and freedom from tyranny. You would think our president could tear himself away from the tiresome task of supporting Marxist dictators and acknowledge the occasion.

There will be violence during this transition. Enemies of peace have been biding their time and will now test the Iraqi army, and the Iraqi people as we leave the military role over to them. These lunatic radical fringe elements will flame out, and or be destroyed by the Iraqi army, and finally Iraqi’s will have peace, and America can focus on Afghanistan, where drug production fuels corruption, crime, and international violence.

will conditions worsen? Will conditions of your car worsen if you stop maintinence.. Of course… but question here is…Who Cares.

I predict that Iraq will still have instability due to the power struggle between Kurd, Sunni, and Shiite factions. They are missing a strong leader who can keep it all together. Saddam was one of the few who could keep the groups under control. The current leader is weak and when the US invaded Iraq, it messed up the balance of power between Iran and Iraq, with Iraq being a counter to Iran. Now, there is a void of power and Iran can call the shots in the Middle East.