A Political candy-store (Or letters to the editor, California-style).

Politically speaking, a discussion of money and Federal government programs might best be described as a Liberal candy-store. So many choices, and all of them deserved treats. The best part? Mommy and daddy are paying for it all!

That was my first impression of this letter to the editor:

How and when to get out of Iraq is on everybody's mind. Donald Rumsfeld says training and deploying Iraqi counter-insurgency troops may take four, eight or 12 years.

Public support for the war is down. Military recruiting has hit a wall. The coalition of the willing is disintegrating. America's reputation is tattered. Iraqization is failing.

The ever-stronger Iraqi resistance has been inflicting 65 attacks on U.S. and Iraqi troops per day. U.S. casualties are about 2,000 killed, more than 13,000 wounded, half of them seriously, plus thousands to come home with serious mental health problems.

Billions of dollars a week could provide Head Start for millions of kids, millions of four-year college scholarships or infrastructure, like the New Orleans levee or building up the below-sea-level areas. Tending to our country's needs, including real homeland security measures, would be a wiser investment for America's future than the misguided Iraq war.

To exit Iraq successfully will require that the U.S. not have permanent military bases there or future control of Iraq oil. An immediate declaration to end the occupation should be followed by an immediate initial limited draw down. A request needs to be made to the U.N. to take responsibility for military monitoring and economic reconstruction.

An independent peace envoy should undertake a shift from military to conflict resolution.

We need to get out of Iraq.

Just look at the laundry list of things we could be doing if not for the evil of the Iraq war! Never minding the assumptions that all these things ought to be the Fed's job, what really gets me is the myopic nature of the plea to leave Iraq.

What happens after we've gone? To us and them? Where's the critical evaluation of those issues?