Imagine if Richard Nixon, instead of ramping up the Vietnam War by secretly invading Cambodia and Thailand, had ramped down the war by telling the puppet government in Saigon that they had a year to get their shit together before we would pull our troops back or out.

Imagine if Lyndon Johnson, instead of ramping up the war with massive aerial bombing campaigns of North Vietnam civilians, had ceased those bombings and opened a secret dialogue with both the South and North in some place other than Paris, and ended the fighting.

How about imagining John Kennedy, instead of sending in more U.S troops following the Bay of Pigs disaster, deciding that South Vietnam was not the place to put American boys in front of bullets and land mines in the name of democracy, and simply pulled out.

In the harsh light of history, not too many fights are worth it when the price includes someone you know dying. Put the death toll in the thousands and multiply that for the number of Americans with horrific injuries, and you get a resounding "End The War Now" chorus.

But why wait for history to sing that song? Of course it would look bad to our allies if we pulled out before the job is done, but how much worse will we look than we did when we started this thing anyway?

The facts all point to flawed thinking, intelligence and leadership for getting into Iraq. The facts all point to a mismanaged post-war plan, and they also point to a country that is beyond hopeless and in need of a political and military enema.

Pull back now. Get Americans out of the bulls eye. Pledge rebuilding aid once the dust settles. Accept that we pulled defeat from the jaws of victory and deny this dangerous president any future ability to put our youth in hell.

As generations have learned of Vietnam and our mistakes there, future generations will learn of those mistakes repeated in Iraq.

And years from now, when some other dangerous president pushes for a war that is neither right nor just, let the chorus ring loud....."Not Another Iraq."