When? Now.

Whenever I ask people if they think America should withdraw from Iraq, they say yes. When I ask them how quickly, they almost always talk about a phased withdrawal. Their rationale: that if the Americans got out too quickly, Iraq would dissolve into ... into what, I ask, into chaos? Into civil war? Into carnage?

I don't know how much worse Iraq can get. If you believe a Johns Hopkins University study, more than 600,000 Iraqis have died because of the American invasion. More than 3,300 U.S. soldiers have been killed and another 25,000 wounded. This month alone, 72 coalition soldiers (almost all American) have died, most of them in their 20s, at least three in their teens.

It seems almost crass to talk about money, but the United States is spending $2 billion a week -- a week -- to perpetuate its immoral policies in Iraq.

On a human level, again how much worse can it get? Iraq already is engaged in a sectarian civil war. America's presence will only prolong the killing. And once the U.S. leaves, Iraq almost certainly will ally itself with its fellow Shias in Iran. So what will America get for its thousands of dead? In all likelihood, an Islamic government with strong ties to another Islamic government, this one fundamentalist and repressive. (Yea democracy.) Won't that be wonderful? Iran and Iraq, flush with oil and weapons, strutting around the Middle East.

And all because of an evil or stupid -- take your pick -- American president.

It's too late to put the genie back in the bottle. It isn't too late to get out.

Although I value their lives as much as I do those of our soldiers, I can do nothing to prevent an Iraqi kid from killing another Iraqi kid. I can do something, if only by voting and speaking out among friends, to prevent more Americans from dying.

During Vietnam, of course, John Kerry asked a haunting question after returning home and becoming an anti-war leader burnished by medals for bravery: "How do you ask a man to be the last man to die in Vietnam? How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?"

How do you ask Michael Rivera's mother in Brooklyn to accept that her 22-year-old son died in a roadside bombing this month in Iraq, just six months after the birth of his daughter?

How do you ask Barry Mayo's family in Ecru, Miss., to accept that their 21-year-old son -- a kid who joined the Army at 17 -- was killed this month during his second tour in Iraq?

How do you tell Kory Koster's mom and dad in The Woodlands, Texas, that their 19-year-old boy (pictured at the beginning of this entry) died this month in Iraq, died at a time when he would have been home on leave had he not given up his slot to another solider whose wife was expecting a baby?

Three young guys out of 3,319 who have perished in a morally bankrupt war. Three young guys who were betrayed by their government. I think it's important to look at their faces, to read their stories. Then ask yourself, when should the United States get out of Iraq?