Earl, since the Oregonian article says today you get a ‘ping’ everytime someone blogs about you (read here) I thought I’d mention some reading you need to do before you blow up the chances of our winning in Iraq by calling for immediate troop withdrawal–again. Please read the Iraq Report here. No, really, read it.
Here’s an excerpt since maybe your crackberry doesn’t open attachments:
• Operation Phantom Thunder is the first coordinated campaign against the insurgency in Iraq. It has a greater chance of success than discrete operations.

• Multiple, simultaneous operations throughout the belts should limit the movement of insurgents, who have been able to flee to other areas for safe haven in the past. • The number of U.S. casualties is likely to rise because U.S. troops are attacking enemy strongholds in Iraq’s most volatile provinces.
Conclusion • If the offensive in the belts is successful, Baghdad will be more secure because fighters and weapons will not flow freely from the suburbs to the city. • Engaging the Iraqi population in counterinsurgency efforts during clearing operations in Baghdad and the belts challenges the insurgency in Iraq. • A series of follow-up operations may occur in Baghdad or elsewhere in Iraq after Operation Phantom Thunder. • The Corps designed Phantom Thunder to last for several months, and it will take time to determine whether it has succeeded.