The "War in Iraq" ended a couple of weeks after it started.

The "War on Terror" is ongoing and is currently being staged in Iraq and to a lesser degree in Afghanistan. As long as there are people living under democracy, terrorists will remain a threat.

Our soldiers should be prepared to remain in Iraq as long as deemed necessary; that is a military call. The cost(s) of having our military presence in Iraq will prove miniscule compared to the costs of fighting terrorists in our own country.

Peace is achieved from a position of strength.

Retreat is not an option nor has it ever insured victory. Our next step should be to continue diplomacy, as we have been doing in Iraq.

Timothy Bottaro, attorney, Sioux city Iowa (Democrat)

There should be an orderly withdrawal from Iraq and the focus should be switched to Afghanistan.

The control should be handed over properly to the Iraqis.

The war in Iraq is not only one of the key reasons for today’s economic crisis; it has also tarnished the country’s image abroad.

This war will go down in history as one of the worst examples of foreign policy. The government is prepared to pay a trillion dollars on the war but can’t provide us with health insurance.

Ernesto Haibi, US army medic, Copperas Cove TX (Independent)

Iraq, though a mistake, must be completed and a stable government formed.

As a veteran of the war in Iraq I am not an impartial observer.

As a rational thinker though, I say we must finish the war we began instead of leaving another country in ruin.

The Afghan war MUST be completed and forces need to be increased. We spend more in 3 weeks in Iraq than the last 7 years in the real 9/11 war.

Troops in Afghanistan should have been 100,000 strong. Iraq should have been 0. The issue is how to leave without creating another last plane out scenario as in Vietnam and Nicaragua.

Bin Laden must be hunted and not allowed to be martyred. His place should be a cell in a basement, fully shaved and shamed for the thousands he's murdered.

No comparison of "American atrocities" can compare to 3,000+ dead innocents in a sneak attack. Realistically, we don't win wars by simply killing people.

We must change the attitudes of the children and the culture of hate fostered in the radical schools where "Unbelievers" are to be killed instead of accepted.

America is racist, sexist, and homophobic; but not only do we live in relative peace. We change as needed to accommodate all.

Alexander Stone Dale, former cab driver, Manhattan NY (Republican)

The War on Terror is global and must be fought anywhere it has to until it is won.

The idea that it is limited to Iraq and Afghanistan is ridiculous, they are but two of the interconnected theaters in the overall war.

The sheer accessibility of the Iraqi Theater allowed the killing of thousands of Al Qaeda fighters or taken captive.

And that success in Iraq bred Afghanistan’s new intensity as a bloodied but unbowed Al Qaeda scurried back out of the light that brought it disaster and sought its return to dark places where it hopes to hide, regroup, stalk, and pounce again.

As long as nations wield terror to conduct foreign policy, as long as solitary human spiders have access to each other to share vile techniques of murder, and as long as our enemy lives among us if not with us; withdrawal is impossible.

We all live behind enemy lines in the War on Terror.

Linda Sharp, parenting writer, Austin TX (Independent)

It's not a joke to say people have actually kept calendars religiously crossing off the days until George Bush is out of office. We want him gone.

We want him gone badly. Because everything he has touched during his Presidency has gone just that - BADLY.

The people of the United States were lied to, fed fear on a CNN drip, and rallied to support his decision to go after Saddam Hussein and those WMDs in Iraq. We were played like a philharmonic orchestra.

No imminent danger. No WMDs.

The people who attacked us on 9/11 were not in Iraq, but Afghanistan.

For nearly seven years we have watched as innocent lives have been lost in the Iraqi populace, as well as in our military forces. All lost to a lie. And we want out. We are smart enough to know we cannot summarily pull out and let that poor country implode. And we are also, well, most of us, humble enough to admit that WE are to blame for the state their country is in.

This election is as much a referendum for getting us safely out of Iraq as it is a referendum for change. We are done with the status quo, the fear mongering, and being played like a Stradivarius. Change is coming, and his name is Barack Obama.