No deadline for troop withdrawal

The Advertiser: No deadline for troop withdrawal :

"But Mr McClelland said the Government should set some parameters about what it expects to achieve from the Iraq operation."

Bingo. What do we expect to achieve now? Especially since one of the newly elected parliamentary members was killed? I have read America is going to keep troops there for the next 4 years. Okay, so how many troops are we expecting to lose? How many troops should we lose? How many people do we want to die before we come up with a list of what we can expect? How many people have to die before we think about exactly what we are doing ? I mean, what are we doing at the moment and how is it helping? Is it helping Iraq? Is it helping us? Some Iraqis want us there and some don't? What does Iraq want, now that we have created this mess for them, and having created the mess, I suppose we should help fix it, but what does that mean? How much of Iraq's history is preserved and how much has become booty? How much of its literature is still preserved,, its textiles, its art? What are we doing about preserving their civilisation since it is one of the most ancient civilisations in the world?