Instead, we have a bunch of Islamic zealots leading a nasty guerilla campaign with help from neighbors Syria and Iran. Tough neighborhood.
These twisted sisters (Syria & Iran) are using their intelligence services to bring about a U.S. withdrawal so that one or the other can rush in and seize Iraq in the same way that Syria took Lebanon.
That paints a pretty ugly picture and one that we can't afford to let happen. It would be morally wrong to leave the people of Iraq to this fate.
If the Iraqi people began to protest our prescence en masse the paradigm would have changed. Until then I support the President and say, stay the course.
About sniping from minarets: when I was in Vietnam we took fire from a few locations near Quang Tri repeatedly. The same general rule of engagement applied then as now. You could only shoot in those directions if you were receiving fire, and it took a minute or so to readjust weapons and return fire-- by which time the unfriendlies usually had shot and run. We sandbagged some fifty calibers down, and locked them in on those locations from which we were being harassed most frequently and responded almost instantly and with precise accuracy when fired upon from those locations. Funny how that particular sniper problem went away and didn't come back. I would add that white phosphorous rounds are available in 50 caliber and even if you don't hit the perp directly he will likely be sufficiently disfigured that none of the virgins will go for it now or in the hereafter.