As I said before, no viable alternative is emerging. The one person who is staunchly in favor of a "rapid withdrawl?" Zbigniew Brzezinski, President Carter's national security advisor. This is almost as if I were setting up a joke about the French military during the Second World War.

I think it's interesting how Brzezinski stated he would be "more willing to support current policy if there were more signs of success."

For you sportsfans out there this is what we would call a "bandwagon fan."

Of course, success can only be met with "double or triple" the amount of troops in Iraq, which raises another question: For victory in Iraq, would you support a draft? I would suggest looking into the history of the draft in the United States before giving an opinion. The draft only has a negative connotation because of the most recent experience, Vietnam. Prior to it was a commonly used practice.

How do former members of the Clinton administration feel?

Article: But three top strategists from the Clinton administration -- [former U.N. ambassador Richard C.] Holbrooke, former secretary of state Madeleine K. Albright and former NATO commander Gen. Wesley K. Clark -- argue vehemently against imposing a deadline, timetable or politically driven drawdown on Iraq.

Article: The United States needs to make Iraq's neighbors, including Syria and Iran, "part of the solution, not part of the problem."

The Fire: The last thing the Iranians want is for Iraq to be successful. They know that if Iraq is a success their grip on power could be very, very limited.

Where's the insurgency coming from? It's not all because of the U.S. being in Iraq.

Article: Much of the insurgency is also related to the local shift in the balance of power rather than the U.S. presence, [former Clinton deputy national security advisor James] Steinberg said.

Iraq isn't going to go away simply because we leave. How do we deal with the problem? I don't know for certain. I have a few ideas in mind but I think the general concensus is that an immediate withdrawl probably isn't in the best idea for Iraq, the U.S., or the Middle Eastern region.