Watched quite a few hours of the Petraeus testimony on Capitol Hill this week.  Watched a Brookings Institution forum on Iraq.  Watched Mr. Bush's Oval Office address.  Ready to watch the Democrats roll over again next week.  The most salient points I noted are as follows:

The point of Mr. Bush's so called 'surge' was to provide sufficient security in Baghdad so that the central government could get its act together and make significant progress on political reconciliation between the Sunnis, Shia and Kurds.  Militarily, it has worked about as well as could be hoped.  Violence is back down to its levels in 2004 and 2005 (in other words, we improved security conditions from an F to a D-.)  There has been no progress towards political reconciliation whatsoever.  Of the 18 benchmarks set, only 3 have been met. 

The problem with pulling out (gradual/phased redeployment) is that if we do that, in all likelihood Iran will dominate the region and the 'government' in Baghdad will be a figurehead government that answers to its masters in Tehran, much like Lebanon's recent historical relationship with Syria. 

The military is broken.  We would have to go back to a draft in order to sustain Mr. Bush's surge beyond next summer.  Iraq was a stable, secular, reasonably prosperous part of the world before we decided to turn it into a chaotic, religiously polarized, economic backwater answerable to Iran.

Bottom line, the decision to create a power vacuum in Iraq by destroying the regime of a brutal secular dictator has been an unmitigated disaster.  Many of us predicted that back in late 2002 and early 2003.  Now we have no good options left.  Mr. Bush, his administration, and his corrupt and incompetent cronies in Congress have done more to harm our national interest than the Soviet Union and Al Qaeda ever dreamt about doing.  They have committed treason against the United States of America.  They have committed war crimes against the Geneva Convention.  They have squandered our blood, our treasure and our reputation.  For what?