“As I look at Iraq, I recall the words of former general and soon-to-be President Dwight Eisenhower during the dark days of the Korean War, which had fallen into a bloody stalemate. “When comes the end?” asked the general who had commanded our forces in Europe during World War II. And as soon as he became president, he brought the Korean War to an end.

These presidents took the right kind of action, for the benefit of the American people and for the health of our relations around the world. Tonight we are calling on this president to take similar action, in both areas. If he does, we will join him. If he does not, we will be showing him the way.”

-Virginia Senator Jim Webb delivering the response to Bush’s State of The Union Speech.

The United Nations today released figures on the number of Iraqi civilians killed in Iraq last year. The number: 34,452. This figure is far greater than the Iraqi Government’s estimate of 12,357.

What does this say about the effort? We went to war with Iraq to find the weapons of mass destruction, liberate the people of Iraq from a dangerous dictator, spread freedom and Democracy throughout the region, protect Americans from an imminent strike, give the people in Iraq a better chance at a free and secure life.

Sadly, we’ve failed on all fronts and instead have made things so bad there that an enormous number of civilians and thousands of our own brave men and women have died.

It’s time to bring the troops home. We should begin deploying the vast majority of U.S. troops in February of 2007 and have all non-essential troops out of the region by early summer.

The war is over. It didn’t go as we would have hoped. Let’s get our troops out of harms way and bring them home, today. Let’s get smart America. While we’re being distracted by the wrong war in Iraq what threats are building against us? Are we ready for another attack? Would we have the capacity to retaliate if we were attacked again here at home?

Fighting a smart war against extremist terrorists means keeping an eye on the ball and never getting distracted from defending this country. Right now, we are entirely off course.

Seems like these kinds of mishaps are happening a lot lately. Check out the video below from a local Fox “News” affiliate in Minneapolis. Troubling mistake, if you ask me.

Hat tip to a great new blog, Obamarama: