The time to go in and dismantle his war machine was now, Bush insisted. But now, nearly four years after the invasion of Iraq, with nearly 3,000 American casualties and over $380 billion having been spent (Sidoti, 2006), less than 40% of Americans support the war. No weapons of mass destruction have been found. No evidence of any nuclear program Hussein was alleged to have launched has been found. And recently the U.S. intelligence agencies reported that the war in Iraq has created more terrorists, and that we are not any safer now than we were in 2001 after 9/11.

Moreover, the American people are clearly fed up with what they see on television from Iraq: a) there is now a civil war going on between rival ethnic factions, and dozens of innocent civilians are kidnapped and/or slaughtered every day; the U.S. involvement has exacerbated this bloodletting; b) images of American prison abuses and torture at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq are a sickening reminder to the world - whether true or not - that the U.S. is anti-Muslim and that the U.S. is ignoring Geneva Convention with regards to prisoners of war.

And with all this terrible news, and the war obviously out of control, and U.S. soldiers basically sitting ducks for insurgent car bombs and brazen attacks by Islamic militants, with Bush wiretapping Americans without a warrant, what is the Pentagon doing...

That is a vicious, evil charge to make, just to keep the war going.
This war is wrong, it is expensive, too many soldiers and innocent civilians have been killed, and it is time for Bush to admit that leaving Iraq is the only sensible answer. That will be hard for him; but those who remember his arrogance in May, 2003, when he flew in a Navy jet onto an aircraft carrier to celebrate "Mission Accomplished" can see the same arrogance now as he refused to admit that the Iraq war was a disastrous and very costly misadventure.

Works Cited

Hess, Pamela. "Pentagon late to the information war." United Press International. Retrieved 1 Nov. 2006 at http://www.upi.com.

Reuters. "Factbox - Military and Civilian Deaths in Iraq. Retrieved 2 Nov. 2006 at http://www.alertnet.org.

Sidoti, Liz. "Analysis: Iraq war dominates campaign." Associated Press. Retrieved 1 Nov. 2006 from http://www.mercurynews.com.