The NIE actually says that Iraq is of great importance to al Qaeda and they are trying to create a safehaven there.

If the US leaves Iraq, Al Q gains a foothold. It would be a direct slap at the US since they were responsible for destabilizing the country.

So the US needs to start wars with as many countries as possible. That way, Al Q won't have enough members to create safehavens in all those newly destabilized nations.

Or maybe they should just drop a few atomic bombs now that mutually assured destruction is no longer a deterrent to US aggression. Now that's what I call a "nuclear option"!

The problem is we're running out of troops. If the TRUE patriots would tell their kids to enlist, we'd have won the war by now.

What happened to the TRUE patriots in the great nation?

What is not mentioned in the NIE is that this year's opium poppy crop appears to be headed for another new record, after two previous record-setting years. The AP reports that there are 10% more fields under poppy cultivation this year than there were last year. And last year was a record year. (2005 wasn't quite the record year that 2004 was, but it was close, so this will be the third record year out of the past four calendar years to be a record.)

Makes one wonder about the War On Drugs and when it got cancelled.