OK.  15 months, 17 months.  Please, get us out!

for me it's a failed war, and needs to be ended, whatever the facts on the ground. We have not just our troops to get out, we also have American contractors, and those contracts need to be voided and opened up to international bidding, or else we have no hope of involving Europe in setting limits on the Iraqis, let some other nations have a stake in the success of Iraq. We also need to bring out those Iraqi's who've helped us and will likely be killed after we leave.  And we have to let them know, so that they can take steps, or not take them, but know that we're leaving.  We can tell when we'll start, but we don't yet know how long it will take to bring everyone out safely, but there will be plenty of time for diplomacy, to let in nations that want to help and that Iraq's current government will allow in. This is Hillary's plan and she'd already been there, for all the good that does anyone, and met with prominent iraqis and our military commanders. I believe Barack now has her advisors, and they're giving him tutorials, which is great. He says he agrees with 99 percent of Hillary's plan, and he may be thinking he can get that government to act, but no one can, we just need to leave.  Hillary admitted there could be a bloodbath after we leave, which is why she'd have brought out our Iraqi helpers, but it would be violence with an end.  With us there it's violence with no end.  The point isn't to rush, it's to get everyone out safely. The point is not however to stabilize Iraq, we can't do that, Iraqi's need to stabilize themselves. We left them a big mess, and as an American I apologize, this was a very bad thing we did, but staying longer won 't help, and leaving will, in time, help. All we can do it leave it to them.  

Perhaps Barack now thinks there is something we can still do, but he'll soon find out, he's having those tutorials now, and he's even meeting with Madeline Albright.  He may say something now about stabilization, but that won't go with exiting.  It's not one or the other either, we can't stabilize even if we do stay, there aren't enough troops in the world. We can't even stabilize our violent inner cities, let's start with Oakland and Chicago and see how we are at stabilization.   Let's try putting an end to violence in our own communities, get some practice in, before we start policing other violent places.