Kevin,
Does it matter any more? You can't pull out now or anti-western elements will believe they can do as they please then hunker down till the decadent westerners get sick of it...
Perhaps you remember the invective poured on the French in UT when they refused to support the invasion for the exact same reasons you now raise. Are the French now revered by you and yours, or doesn't that matter either? Just curious.
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1
