No, Mr. President ... Enough is enough

(Note: This is an immediate response to the president's speech, without having reviewed the entire text.)

Well President Bush just went double down on Iraq with his latest speech and fell flat on his face. While I must give him credit for taking responsibility with regards to all the failures up until this point, he did nothing to show that he has a clear sense of what needs to be done. If anything he rattled the saber against Iran and Syria. Ok, so we're losing the war in Iraq, we have spent nearly all our quality military power in the region over the last four years, and now we're threatening Iran?

Mr. President, force hasn't worked with Iraq. Do you seriously think force will work with Iran or Syria? All force does in this region is create more violence. The people of Iraq, Iran, and Syria are not asking for our help. The people of the Middle East do not want our form of democracy, so drop the neoconservative theory of spreading freedom across the world with force. It doesn't work!

And for God's sake would you please stop trying to tie September 11th to Iraq. September 11th occurred because a group of extremist wanted to hurt us. Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi government of his reign, while wanting to hurt us as well, had NOTHING to do with "bringing the fight to our streets." Granted, thanks to your flawed and failed strategy terrorism is now a greater issue in Iraq than it was before we invaded. But stop trying to sell that load of bullsh*t. We're not buying!

Finally, and this is for all of us, getting up and leaving is not a viable option. We cannot just leave. We cannot just walk away. We made this mess. We screwed this thing up. Damned if we do, damned if we don't. But like the financial budget crisis looming in the years ahead, our long term security and stability in the region will be a time bomb waiting to explode if we simply walk away and ignore the mess we made.

And by "we" I mean, President Bush and the Bush Administration. While I didn't vote for the man, and never supported this mission, I am an American and my flag is worn on the arm of every brave soldier over there. It is the flag every Iraqi sees. Therefore, it is my responsibility to make sure we fix this mess, regardless of whether or not I personally did anything to cause it.

Mr. Bush, you failed to sway me. In fact, you've scared me even more because you look just as scared as the rest of us. You just put our mortgage on the poker table and are hoping beyond hope that your luck's going to change. For the sake of us all, I hope your luck changes too, but in the mean I'm going to do whatever I can to get that mortgage back before the final card is dealt.