I originally planned on writing this Thursday after Bush made his speech disguising the end of the troop surge as a withdrawal. I thought that I should let it marinate for a few days. It's been a few days, and these are my thoughts.

-I like how he said the sheiks in Anbar asked American troops for help in getting rid of Al-Qaeda's presence in the province. It makes it sound like when the US turned down the sheiks' offer of their services 4 years ago never happened.

-Apparently, Al-Qaeda is the main problem in Iraq. I thought it was the civil war going on. Oh, wait! They're not calling it a civil war; it's "sectarian violence".

-I bet you my cassette tape of "CrazySexyCool" that the White House wrote "General Petraeus's Report"

-It is neither Gen. Petraeus's nor Amb. Ryan Crocker's job to sell this war to Congress. The White House should not have put them in this position.

-I don't know if Bush and his ilk got the memo, but Iraq already is a safe haven for Al-Qaeda

-I bet you all the Vokal jeans I haven't gotten rid of that one of the 36 nations is Afrika Bambaataa and The Zulu Nation. Seriously, 36 nations? Can these people count?

Allow me to state the obvious: this war needs to end. The US government authorized an illlegal invasion of a sovereign country against the wishes of the international community. The minds behind the quick invasion failed to plan for what happens next. American troops are policing an all-out civil war, and they and many Iraqis are getting killed. What we need to do is leave. Withdraw our troops and let the Iraqi government know it's time to step their game up. The civil war will get much worse, but we can pray to God that other nations are willing to forgive and help us clean up the mess we made. This war has caused so much damage that won't be fixed for years, if that soon. 30,000 troops may go home, but the longer the other 100,000 or so are there, the more damage will be done.

Oh, I forgot; focus on Afghanistan and Pakistan: where the real "War On Terror" is.