I have about 12 close friends. half of those supported Bush and the other half did not. This is a small number of people yet like national polls about 60 percent that had supported bush have turned on him. I am critical of those people and I will tell you why. He has not changed his approach or ideaology since his second term. These former Bush supporters actually make insane comments like "well i think we should have bombed iraq for 9/11 but put a limit of 6 to 8 months max for staying in that counrtry. this is insane. I do not think we should have ever invaded that country and dealt with Saddam in a direct takeout rather than create more havoc in that country. i think our Iraqi civiian casalties have created more resisitance and jihadists especially among 14-16 year old Iraqi boys. However now that we have created this quagmire of ruined infrastructure and complete chaos and the beginnings of cvil war to pull out now would be a bigger error. We need to put billions back into rebuilding(forget schools,libraries,fire and police in the USA) and put our money into cleaning up Georges mess so that these people will then want to continue through to try to create some sort of democracy and not be taken over by a terorist group. Iraq with no electricity, clean water, many civilian dead and the average citizens life in much more strife is now a prime breeding ground for a terrorist state. WE HAVE to stay and provide security and pour billions of tax dollars into this country to clean up Georges mess. That is our responsibility as citizens who elected him. We need to pay the price.Electing "w" was our mistake and the invasion was our mistake so my republican friends who now have turned and want to cut and run I think now is the time to open your pocketbook and pay huge amounts of money to rebuild this mess we made and while we are at it if you have a child or grandchild between the ages of 17 and 30 and you voted for this idiot then sign them up and ship them to Iraq to clean up after your mistake. My republican friends that all work for big corporations that want to pull out on the Iraqi people and get their tax break from Bush for their vacation and keep their lily white kid at home in their million dollar mansion ought to be hoofing it to the marines to put their money and child where their vote went and stand behing the idiot they elected and donate their money and their kids to complete this invasion. Instead they voted for Bush and now the cowards that they are they are worried about the costs and the loss of life. What the hell did they think would happen. This is not a war to fight for freedom(I would enlist myself if that were the case) this is a war of Haliburton.oil.power.religion and against a country already beaten down who was no threat to us. So the polls against bush of people that were against invading a country that was no threat(I fall into that category) they are expressing their opinion but the Bush supporters that were behind him all the way until about a year ago and now they are worried about the costs and the fear their kid may have to go are the real cowards. Anyone with any brains could see the inasion would go on for years so what are these former Bush supporters whining about. did they think we could go drop a few bomobs wipe things out and then fly home and all would be well. In fact Bush has (2) 22 year old daughters that are always in the news at fashion shows and parties in New York. If he believes in this so striongly rather than the backdoor draft of guardsmen doing their 4th tour why not have his daughters do a tour in iraq. He wanted this war so why not put his money and kids where his mouth is and then maybe i would believe something he has to say.

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BLIND FAITH IN BAD LEADERSHIP IS NOT PATRIOTISM

Well I am worried about the cost also; but, the war is and was necessary if the civilized world is ever going to rid itself of international terrorism. This has to be done before some terrorist gets a nuke!

Now the invasion was not an easy thing for Bush to do. Practically every President has known that something had to eventually be done about it. The Clinton approach was to fire a few missiles and hit a few camels in the butt. All that did was antagonize the terrorist and gave them another club for recruiting even more terrorists. Bush is the only President who has grabed the tiger by the tail and he will surely go down as a great president.

As for the cost, it is huge but so is our economy and the debt is still less in inflation adjusted dollars as a percentage of GNP than it has been in the past! So while I hate to see the large debt it is manageable.

The democrats haven't done much to help Bush out on cost. Their pork barrel funding has exceded every budget Bush has ever submitted, then the hypocrits blame him for all the cost.

So my post was about republicans turning on bush when his ideaology and methods are the same. i find that disgusting. What do you think of their quick shift and actually thinking the invasion was going to be a 3 month bomb blast and the life would go on. Can anyone from either party have been that naive. Those for it knew it was for the long haul...those against thought the long haul was based on misinformation and no imminent threat. At least each has a thought I resent the Bush voter who suddenly says "well i like the idea but only wanted it to last 3 months and cost 2 billion. Are people living in fantasy land? So 25 what is your reply to these turncoats..At least I have my thoughts that it has increased terroism so we need to stay and clean up bush's mess. What are people thinking that want to leave Iraq a wasteland we created as an open range for all the jihadist we have inflamed?

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BLIND FAITH IN BAD LEADERSHIP IS NOT PATRIOTISM

"but, the war is and was necessary if the civilized world is ever going to rid itself of international terrorism"

>>>As surely as night follows oranges, eh?

I assume you are equating war with civilized. Cute but not realistic.

Well I applaud you for wanting to "stay the course" now that we are there. If true you should be trying to help rather than hinder. If you can't say anything good, just keep your mouth shut. If you want to help, then help, but I wouldn't be giving terrorists reasons to hold on, verbal or otherwise.

Iraq is not the long haul. The long haul includes Iran, Syria, and possibly N. Korea.

Now I was one who thought the war would last only a month or two. As far as major military operations are concerned I was correct in that judgment; nevertheless, I was wrong about the extent of the insurgency that is on going.

I think the reason we have the insurgency to the extent that we do goes back to a bad decision in appointing L. Paul Bremer as Ambassador to Iraq. Not to take anything away from Bremer, he is a fine American but he just made a very bad decision in essentially eliminating Saddems military.

I think the insurgency would have been substantially mitigated had he done what McArthur did in Japan or Patton in Germany after WWII. Or course Patton was fired for using the old Nazi infrastructure, but he was the only one who got things to work quickly. All the other sectors who started from scratch had big problems. Bremer started from scratch in Iraq.

In any case, even had Bremer used the former infrastructure we may have had some insurgency. I myself could not have imagined the level of religious fanaticism; but it only heightens the need to persevere in Iraq and the Middle East in general.

As to people changing their minds maybe they didn't really have any conviction in the first place. You can't start a war and half way though change your mind. On the other hand, if the war was really a big, big mistake maybe one should change their mind; but I don't think the war was a even a little mistake. I believe it was necessary if we are ever going to end international terrorism because if we don't one day we will experience the ultimate nightmare.

In any event, I applaud you for wanting to finish the job particularly since you were against it in the first place. So if you are serious, you should be sounding more helpful and not trying to denigrate the President at every turn. It is the squeaky wheels and a left of center media who are taking a toll on those with little conviction.