Thirty-six years and three months ago today, a young Navy Lieutenant testified before congress about the war he had just been in and that was still ongoing (transcript). It took another four years for the Vietnam War to come to a conclusion, at least where US involvement was concerned. Many soldiers paid with their lives after the war was already lost and should have been ended.

Today we find ourselves at the same crossroads yet again. We are entangled in a conflict that our government lied us into, and that has evolved beyond our ability to work out militarily.

Four years after Mr. Bush has declared Mission Accomplished, the mission has failed.

Four years after he declared the war as won, it is lost.

Four years after he declared victory over Saddam Hussein and Iraq liberated, the country is being liberated of its citizens, and invaded by a parasitic enemy much less visible than the former dictator, but no less dangerous.

Four years after, and our troops have not come home, and their deaths have multiplied.

When is it time to admit the cause is lost? How many more men and women must die before we realize that we can, and do, lose wars; that sometimes, what is broken can't be fixed, even if we broke it?

Admitting defeat is not a failure. Not admitting it, and slogging on blindly in the face of obvious futility - that is failure. Allowing more deaths by claiming those that have come before would have been senseless otherwise - that is failure.

It takes strength and humility to say; 'I was wrong, and I cannot undo what I did.' That realization alone is the first step to making it right again. We, the people, have been able to say this for a while now.

We have lost. Let us bring our troops home. It is over.

When will our leaders follow?