The Guardian asks How can America get out of Iraq?

"In the debate over the Iraq war, a new fragment of conventional wisdom has fixed itself in the minds of mainstream politicians and commentators: whether or not it was right to go to war, we are told on all sides, the US must now succeed in achieving its aims.

In the words of John Kerry, 'Americans differ about whether and how we should have gone to war, but it would be unthinkable now for us to retreat in disarray and leave behind a society deep in strife and dominated by radicals.'

The argument is an irritating one for those of us who opposed the war, suggesting, as it does, that we must now sign up for the project ("stay the course") because the very mistake we warned against was made...

...all combat operations should cease immediately, and then, on a fixed and announced timetable, the American forces should withdraw from the country. In short, the US, working with others, should give Iraqis their best chance to succeed in their own efforts to create their own future.

According to the most recent Times/CBS poll, the public, by a margin of 48% to 46%, has decided, with no encouragement from either of the two major-party presidential candidates or from most media commentators, that the war was a mistake.

46% have decided that the American troops should be withdrawn. They are right. The United States should never have invaded Iraq. Now it should leave."