Some ammo for your next argument about Iraq....

[Son of California]

We Americans, along with the rest of the civilized world, are at war against Radical Islamist Terrorists.
While I do not agree with the use of childish terms like Good and Evil, this is a struggle to preserve our way of life.
They are the true enemy, the one we need to worry about.
The Iraq War is diving us as a nation, making us weaker, while at the same time, drawing more and more people to the side of the Radicals and making them stronger.
In this way, the Iraq war is making us less safe, and strengthening our enemies.
The longer we stay, the more strained our military is and the less ready they are if -God forbid- we need them for a more urgent necessity of National Defense.
The foreign terrorists are in Iraq to kill American soldiers and weaken us as a nation, not to take over the country. There are a enough armed Iraqi citizens to put down any attempt by foreign forces to take over the country. In fact, most violence going on now in Iraq is because of our presence and would end if we left. Violence based around ethnic divides in Iraq is thousands of years old -not our fault and not our job to fix.
THE IRAQIS NO LONGER NEED US.
There is one reason and one reason alone why we are still there -because certain corporations such as Halliburton are making too much money off of it.

[MissMarple]

1. I think that is how the issues are falling out. You nailed it.

And Seymour Hersch (sp) said a similar thing about Halliburton on the Daily Show last week. We are there because they are still making a ton of money.

[ginnyinWI]

2. but most of the terrorists are not foreign fighters

Most of them are Sunnis opposed to the U.S. backed political promoting of a Shia and Kurdis dominated political process. Bottom line: they want us out of their country. We are occupiers, oppressors in their eyes. Even the police are more loyal to their countrymen than the U.S. leadership who is directing them to keep the peace. There is intense anti-American sentiment, and we are seen as a oppressor like Saddam Hussein was.
There is a book out called "Night Draws Near: Iraq's People in the Shadow of America's War" by Anthony Shadid. It was reviewed this month in The American Prospect. It's a much needed insight into how Iraq itself feels about this war.