Our hands are clearly stained with the bloods of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. Which means we have the responsibility first to do whatever will help Iraq return to peace and second to help Iraq rebuild it's devastated infrastructure, cleanse it's soil of depleted plutonium which has caused horrible birth defects, and return to a semblance of normalcy.

Unfortunately, making that determination is the easy part. The hard part is figuring out how to accomplish such a goal.

I believe that the sooner our military gets out of Iraq, the better. First and foremost, we have to remember that those who are fighting us are fighting an invading army. Indeed they are fighting what they perceive as an occupying army. They see the new Iraqi government as nothing more than a puppet regime, if not put in place by the U.S. at least obedient to our commands and serving our interests. Thus the attacks on Iraqis who are participating in that government, or to use other words, collaborating with the enemy. While the sides fall out along sectarian lines, it would do us well to focus on the fact that the struggle is not about religion or sectarian theological differences, it is about which group has political power, which group is siding with American forces, and which group stands to rule Iraq in the future.

When the conflict is seen in this light, it becomes clear that our continued military presence only exacerbates the situation as various groups attempt to drive out our army, and attack any one who cooperates with us.The longer we stay the more vicious the attacks against our soldiers and our allies will become, the longer it will take to restore peace once we are gone.

Sadly, when we leave, there is likely to be an escalation of the civil war for some time, perhaps years even. Again, though, it seems to me that this escalation will be worse the longer we wait to leave, as people's positions have become more and more hardened, and the enmities between Iraqis have been cemented by continued conflict.

The alternative -- that we stay until we have completely subdued the opposition -- is unpalatable on many fronts. First and foremost is the sheer improbability of being able to wipe out all those opposing our continued presence. The wars of the past sixty years should teach us something about the tenacity of opposition movements whether we call them freedom fighters or insurgencies. Not to mention the death toll that would be required to wipe out the opposition in Iraq.

Really, we are between a rock and a hard place. Stay and people die, leave and people die. Truly, we have created a mess! It is our obligation to do whatever will help end the violence the most quickly.

Also to consider is the suffering of the average Iraqi, and the phenomenal cost of the ongoing military operations. Not only does the cost of the war strain our ability to provided needed social services at home, but it impedes our ability to help rebuild Iraq. I can't help but wonder, if we were spending $120 million every day to rebuild Iraqi hospitals and schools, roads and airports, water processing plants, factories, generators, etc, instead of spending that money on military operations, how quickly would the situation improve?

Getting our military out, as I said above, is only a midpoint, the rebuilding of Iraq is the endpoint. The way things currently stand, American corporations are not going to be able to participate in that rebuilding safely. Whether the UN can help deliver that aid, or whether it will have to be under the auspices of Arab nations, is something that will have to be determined. Either way, it is clearly our responsibility to help Iraq return to the economic level it was at before we invaded.