I hate to repeat myself but here goes:
Although the cold war ended some time ago, Russia and USA still compete with each other in many various places in the world, the Middle East being probably the most important area of their struggle. Both countries can't afford an open conflict with each other as it would be to devastating, and the only winner in it would be probably other wanna-be superpower like china for example. That's why both countries support their enemies instead of carrying an open conflict with each other.
USA invaded Afghanistan and Iraq not because of Al-qaida, but because of the oil. Osama Bin-laden isn't a serious threat for USA. He’s just being used by American government to keep American society in constant fear. It allows them to better control it's people and convince them to support their conflicts. As I already mentioned somewhere on this forum, American government knew about the al-qaida plans to destroy the WTC. They sacrificed their own people to convince the rest of society that there really is a serious threat form the side of Arabs so that the society would support their future invasions. It worked. That of course doesn't mean that Osama was set up and that he is innocent. Osama Bin laden is a mad man that tries to keep middle eastern oil for himself. He also tries to manipulate Middle Eastern people by depicting Americans as modern crusaders. To sum this up, Bush and Osama use a very similar rhetoric in order to persuade people to listen to them.
The truth is that an ordinary Iraqi wants to live in peace. Although he sees the American army as invaders he has enough of bombings and extremists. If Americans would succeed in restoring peace in Iraq they would probably accept them. Well at least for some time. Withdrawing Americans troops now, during this hard times, would definitely push the Iraqi population in the hands of Americans enemies, like Iran and its supporter, Russia. Not a very smart thing to do.
Quoting: valmoe1
What is Polands view on the USA in general? In the US we assume everyone hates us. What does Poland think over all?
During the communist times the USA was seen here as the land of the free and many opportunities. Everybody was dreaming about the American dream in the gray Poland of the 60's, 70's etc... Besides Americans were the enemies of the Ruskies, thus making them our friends. Now this enthusiastic approach to USA is slowly calming down here, although I wouldn’t call it hate. It's just that just like the Western Europe noticed us after the 1 may 2004, we noticed them back. Suddenly it appeared that you don't have to fly over the pond to live a life like from the Hollywood movies. London is definitely closer than Washington, and just as interesting. Besides, while we can move freely throughout the whole EU, we have to get a visa in order to go to USA. It seems that Europeans care more about us, which, because of the geographical position of our countries is obvious. I don’t think that many Americans even know that Poland takes part in “the war on terrorism”. I don’t think that an ordinary Americans cares actually. :)