During those seven years, in the cow pastures of Babylon, he lived with the wild animals and ate grass like cattle. This continued until he finally “lifted his eyes toward heaven” and began to “praise him who lives forever” (Daniel, chapter 4).

Saddam needs to be removed from power—should that be heaven’s judgment—either by God’s direct intervention or by other forces piloted by God. I unequivocally support our troops who are striving to do just that, but I’m cautious and careful about committing myself to the idea that our President made the right decision at the time he made it. Let me explain.

If no weapons of mass destruction are found in Iraq, America will be the laughing stock of the world. Furthermore, we will be hated and despised by most other nations for launching an invasion of another country that posed no active and ongoing threat to other nations. Additionally, Bush and his Administration, along with the Republican Party at large, will have lost their political clout and reputation in the eyes of their fellow countrymen. But if weapons of mass destruction are found, we are “home free.” Bush will be looked upon by many nations as a hero who saved the world from another Hitler.

The mistake that was made 12 years ago under the elder Bush was the decision is leave Saddam in power, even though he had invaded another country (Kuwait). If that matter had been addressed and culminated at that time, this current war would not have been launched. I thought then, as I do now, that the elder Bush made one of his greatest blunders when he deliberately left the job incomplete.

Another question we need to ask ourselves in closing this column: Has our President been obsessed with the idea that war must be waged against Iraqi’s dictator, his cruel and brutal sons, and their puppets—regardless? If yes, why? Well, do not forget his father’s blunder.

Saddam could have been contained without sending thousands of our boys to, and spending billions of tax dollars on, that part of the world where little or no value is placed upon human life, and whose murderous, oppressive, corrupt leaders and their puppets are masters of lies and deception. These evil traits are part of the Islamic culture. And Islam is the world’s greatest enemy.

If Saddam had invaded another country again, we and the United Nations could have gone after him with “all fours.” But he didn’t. He was contained before we invaded him. And now our wartime predicament will drain us of our energies, tax dollars, and the lives of many young American boys. We need to find a way out, and as quickly as possible.

Our President has made a fatal mistake. I’m afraid It will cost him his presidential reputation. Ret. General Clark noted the other day that Bush had a “fixation” about Iraq. I’m inclined to agree. It was quite obvious.

Should we invade those terrorists and countries that invade us, such as 9/11? By all means! But we cannot go on invading countries, as we did Iraq, without turning the world’s opinion against us. We must cease trying to police the whole world and start protecting our own borders from terrorist invaders and others who would undermine our freedom and murder our children.

We are now fighting an enemy we have never done battle with before—Islamism. This satanic cult is made up of tens of millions of disciples who have no scruples about dying for their cause, place no value upon human life, and are brainwashed from early childhood to either convert or kill all “infidels.” That’s you and me. They will not give up. To give up the battle is to surrender Islamism.

Islam is a religion that lives by the sword—and always has. It might interest you to know that during the last 20 years, two million Christians have been killed in South Sudan by the Muslim north. Over the past few years, hundreds of thousands have been killed in Nigeria in Muslim-initiated attacks. In Saudi Arabia, many hundreds of Christians have been killed and many others persecuted and imprisoned by Muslim authorities. The list is endless.

Islamism has not only become a world menace, but also the civilized world’s greatest threat. We will not—I repeat, we will not—win the war. Just as we lost the war in Vietnam, we’ll lose the war in Iraq. Our boys over there are victims of Bush’s mistake. I have a grandson in Iraq who serves with the 101st Airborne Division. I fear for him. He and all the others are in my daily prayers. They’re innocent. Our political and military leaders are guilty of getting us involved in a long, drawn-out battle with a country that posed no immediate threat to our borders.

We must get out as quickly as possible! Not only are lives being unnecessarily lost, but we tax-payers are being saddled with billions of dollars of extra taxes. We need to protect our own borders from Islamic terrorists. And when they attack us, as they did on 9/11, we go after them with everything we have—as well as the countries that sent them. But this was not the case with Iraq. It is strongly indicated that Bush had a fixation about invading Iraq.

No one is any more opposed to terrorists and terrorism than I am. We did the right thing by going after the terrorists and their leaders in Afghanistan after 9/11. They attacked us. We were 100% correct by counterattacking. But Iraq did not attack us. We attacked them on mere assumptions, the central one being that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction and intended to employ them. Up to this point, that assumption has proved fatal. Even if he had had such weapons, we should not have invaded him until there were clear-cut evidence that he was in the process of using them.

Because of the poor judgment of our country’s leaders, we have enraged the Islamic world and they are more intent now than ever to rid the civilized world of “infidels.” As we have noted previously, Islam is the world’s greatest threat. There’s no controversy here. Even before 9/11, their ultimate goal was to either convert the civilized world to Islamism or to wipe it clean of all “infidels.” And they must be stopped. But our job description is not to police the whole world. Wherever Islamics are headquartered, we invade them when they invade us. We go after them when they capture and hold as hostages American citizens. We assail them when they confiscate American property and interests in foreign lands.

Was Iraq guilty of any of the above? No. It seems the people who plunged us into this sordid mess in Iraq are now beginning to see the handwriting on the wall and trying to find a way out of their self-imposed dilemma by insisting that complete sovereignty will be given the Interim Government on June 30. Will it work? I pray it will. My prediction is that members of the Interim Government will be assassinated or ran out of office by demonic terrorists. That places us back into the same predicament we were in prior to installing the Interim Government.

To me, the solution to this hopeless quagmire is to get out of Iraq—get out before more American lives are lost; get out before the National debt becomes so bloated it explodes in our faces; get out before most of the Muslim countries pool their military resources and come upon us with all fours; get out and come home to protect our own borders; get out as we did in Vietnam. Let those demonic forces in Iraq and other Muslim countries slaughter each other, as they have always done and always will do. Their sectarian tribal families will continue feuding and killing each other long after we’re gone—even while their main thrust is to cleanse the world of “infidels.”

We have made a mistake. It has, and will, cost us dearly. Those responsible will have to pay the price by very possibly losing whatever political clout they had initially. And you hard-core politicians, listen up: My stance would be identical if our country’s chief leaders were of the Democratic party. If you write me about my position, and I invite you to do just that, please leave politics out of it, for I’ve already noted that my position would not change, regardless of the party in office.

Iraq did not invade America. We invaded Iraq. We were 100% justified in our invasion of Afghanistan. The terrorists in that country invaded us. But we do not—I repeat, do not—have a parallel between our invasion of Afghanistan and our invasion of Iraq. The situation in Iraq is deteriorating. Satanic terrorists from other Islamic nations are pouring into Iraq to run us out. It has developed into a never-ending battle. There’s no light at the end of the tunnel.

When we invaded Iraq with ground troops, we opened up a million cans of Islamic worms. We are in a “bunch” of trouble. It will cost us dearly. Mistakes like this one, made by politicians who wanted to “right” the wrongs of a previous administration, can partly be rectified by sending them (the politicians) to the front lines in Iraq. Let them get a taste of what our young men are facing each day.

The decision was made by one man—George W. Bush. Oh, yes, his Aides, his Cabinet, and Military Advisors supported him, but the final decision was made by him. If he was so certain that Saddam had to go, and I’m also convinced he needed to go, the task could have been consummated by air strikes and missiles. It might have taken a while, perhaps even weeks or months, but it could have been done.

Instead, our President sent our young men and women to die on a soil that has soaked up the blood of warring religious factions for centuries. Those factions will go on killing each other regardless of the “democracy” we institute there. Over 1,500 Americans have now died in a war that could have been avoided.

I ask you not to misunderstand me at this point. America should protect herself against terrorists. When they attack us, as they did on 9/11, we should go after them with all barrels. But Iraq did not attack us. We attacked Iraq. If we were justified, as many believe, in invading Iraq because they posed a “threat to our National Security,” why are we not invading North Korea and Iran, as well as other countries? They, too, pose a threat to our National Security.

How far are we willing to go with this logic? How many more “excuses” must we devise to send our young people to foreign lands to shed their blood to “protect our National Security” when our National Security has not been attacked by Iraq? America is a world leader, yes, and should be, but America is not the world’s policeman.

Because of Bush’s fixation about Iraq, he made a big mistake. As I’ve noted before, I’d feel the same way if our President were a Democrat. Our President’s fixation about Iraq has landed us in a military situation that will fatally afflict us for decades. History will chronicle our ground war in Iraq as one of the greatest military blunders this nation has ever made. It will be recorded as an era of insanity.

Lest you have forgotten the bottom line, we launched a ground invasion of a country that had not invaded us. And now we are confronted with thousands of Islamic suicide bombers who are willing to blow themselves up in our faces because we have occupied one of their countries. It will not go away. The can of Iraqi worms our President opened is much larger than initially thought.

Yes, as I’ve said before, we were right to invade Afghanistan. They invaded us on 9/11. There is, however, zero parallel between our invasion of Iraq and our invasion of Afghanistan. One country invaded us, the other did not.

True, Islam is the world’s greatest threat. If there’s a World War III in the future, I think it will be with all of the Muslim nations. Iraq was a threat, yes; but we cannot invade every country that poses a threat to our national security. For if we follow that line of thinking, we will be launching an invasion of North Korea, Iran, and most of the Muslim nations any day now.

If and when, however, our intelligence sources—and we have the best—identify an imminent threat to our national security from a hostile nation, such as North Korea or Iran, a pre-empt attack would be justified. Iraq, however, did not fall into that category.

Regardless of what our notions are in this unpopular war, we are there and we must make the best of it. Our President and military leaders should find a way out as soon as practical, as we did in Vietnam. For if we remain in Iraq, there will be no end to the war.

When Muslims attack us, as they did on 9/11, we have every right to retaliate. We were 100% justified by going into Afghanistan, for the terrorists who invaded us were headquartered in that country. But there is no parallel between Afghanistan and Iraq. Although Saddam needed to be eliminated, Iraq did not invade us. We invaded Iraq. And in doing so, we violated the very UN Charter we were supposed to uphold and promote. The UN Charter states that one country may invade another when invaded by that country—without UN approval. But to invade a country that has not invaded us is without UN sanctions.

Any way we peel the orange, Bush had a fixation about Saddam and Iraq and intended to invade that country, “come hell or high water.” And in doing so, he has plunged our country into a mess so momentous, financially and militarily, that historians will, in the future, describe this war as America’s greatest military blunder. Vietnam was bad enough, but it won’t even compare to our involvement in Iraq.

True, as some of you may be thinking, Germany did not attack us during World War II, as Japan did. Germany and Italy declared war on the United States the day after Japan attacked us. We had no other choice but to declare war on them. Furthermore, America was allied with other countries, such as the United Kingdom, and our commitment was to give military assistance to our Allies in the event of an attack. Twelve years ago, we went to war against Iraq when Kuwait asked us to intervene when she was attacked by Iraq. None of these things were in place when we invaded Iraq in 2003. And while I have questions about our past involvement in Korea, the fact is that South Korea asked for our help. South Korea was one of our Asian partners.

We should never have been in Vietnam. We lost that war. Years before it began, General Douglas MacArthur, in a speech before Congress in 1951, warmed us about getting involved in a ground war in Asian countries such as Vietnam. I still have that speech. Oh, how soon we forgot!

Regardless of the justification or lack of justification of previous wars, Bush has led us into a conflict that should never have involved ground troops. His rage against Saddam could have been gratified by air strikes and missiles without sending one soldier to tread the bloody soil of Iraq. And because of his spurious decision, almost 2,000 American boys have been killed. Others will be killed. Additionally, billions of dollars have been blown to the wind. You and I will be paying for this insane war for decades. We need to bring our troops home, and as quickly as possible. No amount of political logic will justify the war in Iraq. In the longrun, our country will be torn apart, as it was during the Vietnam era.

And now the truth is coming home to roost. Support for the war has eroded to the point that we must cease our military campaign there and bring our boys home as quickly as possible, as we did in Vietnam.

Members of both political parties are now seriously questioning our presence in Iraq. Many Republican lawmakers are now backing away from the excuses used to invade Iraq and are questioning our President’s motives.

We continue to lose the war in Iraq. Iraqi’s new Constitution is in jeopardy. Our President’s vision to liberate Iraq from Islamic terrorists and satanic Muslins has failed. And because of our failure, I predict our Republican President will be replaced by a Democratic President in 2008. Not all is well with the Republican Administration. Unless they can pull off a “home run” between now and election time, their demise lies just over the horizon.

Iraq did not invade us. We invaded Iraq. As I’ve said before, if our President thought Saddam should go, and I agree he needed to be ousted, missiles and air strikes could have done it. Instead, he invaded Iraq with ground troops, the worst mistake he could have made.

The lives of thousands of American troops would have been saved and our country not burdened with billions of dollars of additional debt had he employed missiles and air strikes only. But now that we’re there, victory must be our goal, but only if victory is feasible. If a lack of victory surfaces, as it did in Vietnam, we will have no choice but to admit defeat and get out. We did it once. Let’s not be too proud to do it again.

Ishmael, Hagar’s son, and the father of all Arabs and their Muslim offspring, is acting like a wild donkey, just as God foretold. He told Hagar that he “will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers” (Gen. 16:11-12).

We are seeing this prophecy played out in Iraq and throughout most of the world. There’s no light at the end of the tunnel, so the war in Iraq rushes on. Get out! Get out before we get so deeply entrenched there will be no exit.