Poll: In Your Opinion, When Do You Think The War In Iraq Will End?

[SteelCityRising]

We're fighting a war that has changed direction far too many times for my tastes. President Bush initially rallied the nation onward while the wounds of September 11, 2001 were still fresh in the minds of a populace that wanted vengeance and accountability. As such, we (rightfully) invaded Afghanistan in a manhunt for Osama bin Laden and his loyalists to destroy Al-Qaeda before they could hurt any of our loved ones again. His approval rating soared when we heard about the collapse of the Taliban and the resulting increase in liberties for the Afghan people, especially women.

Unfortunately, it is now five years later and we have yet to either capture Osama bin Laden or destroy his terror network. Instead of continuing to focus the majority of our operations on him (which I would have approved of), President Bush decided to shift our attention towards Saddam Hussein and Iraq, leading us into a major war with a nation that, as far as we know did not have "weapons of mass destruction" and had no credible link to 9/11. Instead of primarily focusing all of our efforts onto one front in order to hunt down those responsible for 9/11 (and who may very well be plotting another attack against New York City for all we know), we're now spread too thin as we've lost well over 3,000 of our loved ones in Iraq.

President Bush keeps on changing his priorities with this "War on Terror." First, it was to hunt down those responsible for 9/11 and to keep our nation safe. Then, it shifted towards toppling the regime of Saddam Hussein. Then it shifted towards "liberating" the Iraqi people. Now, it is "rebuilding Iraq." What about 9/11? What link did the Iraqi civilians have to 9/11? Forgive me for being a typical naive PA liberal, but I just don't understand why we're now committed towards "rebuilding" a nation we destroyed for apparently no reason at all.

President Bush continues to say that we'll "stay the course" and be in Iraq more or less until those who wish to do us harm are eradicated. Nonsense! There will always be terrorists who wish to bring ill-will towards our people, whether they be in Iraq, Azerbaijan, Luxembourg, or even my own Scranton, PA area (where several men were recently arrested for their involvement in a terror plot against Fort Dix in NJ). If we can't even stop a man in our own nation from gunning down Amish schoolgirls at a one-room schoolhouse or a deranged young man from gunning down dozens at a Southern university, then how on Earth do we expect to stop every foreigner who wishes to come here to do us harm?

President Bush, we might as well just pull out now because we'll never have a Middle-East that loves Americans, no matter how much you think "staying the course" will change that. If we pull out now, Iraq will likely fall into turmoil, and we'll probably see our own nation's soil attacked again. If we pull out in a year, the same will likely occur. If we pull out in a decade, we'll probably see similar results. Why can't President Bush just admit that he made a mistake already in invading a nation he knew we had no "exit strategy" for?