The well-worn phrase that this is the modern day Vietnam is proving to be true, it seems...And I hope that Congress has the guts to push these bills through. This has been a pointless war and the more the US waste on it the more damaging the result for the country. Although I agree it should make sure that Iraq will be able to survive without its support and not be taken over by insurgents, but if the US pulls out much of the encouragement for insurgents will be gone, as this is the main motivation for rebellion right now. So if the US did such a good job in invading Iraq and deposing Saddam, than why hasn't it deposed other dictators instead of installing them? Dictatorships like Pinochet in Chile, miltaristic oligopolies in El Salvador, multiple attempts to install pro-US dictators in Guatemala, as well as supplying Saddam Hussein with chemical/nuclear weapons in the 80s, arming/supporting the Taliban in Afghanistan....the list goes on and on. The only reason they are invading Iraq because Saddam is going against their best interests, as well as to gain a foothold in the Middle East, a key area for oil supplies that will become so important in the next few decades. If they really cared about "democracy" and "freedom" why haven't they reacted to the ethnic wars in Sudan, the military coups in Congo, or the genocide in Rwanda in the early 90's where a million people were slaughtered while the developed world stood by and did nothing? For Bush to uphold these priniciples now is wholly hypocritical and against the nature of the US, it rarely acts in the interests of others...except when it has something large to gain as a result.