ground, how long do you leave them? in other words, look at korea. we thought the war in the 50s. our presence there is still a powerful military force in cooperation with the allies, the south koreans. do we intend to be in iraq for the next 50 years? so in a sense we re fighting a losing battle militarily and putting people in harms way militarily because, again, it really lies with neweri nuri al-maliki or whoever takes over. and that could happen soon. whoever takes over after maliki. we re making vice president biden a profit. when he was a senator, he postulated the ultimate posture of iraq it would be three different states. there are no good military options if you are not committed