Let's hope withdrawal happens quickly

Maj. Gen. Roger Lempke warned that he heard of one unit that was on the plane, ready to return to the United States, when the troops were told to get out of their seats and return to duty in Iraq.

But Lempke, Nebraska's adjutant general, doesn't think that will happen to about 550 Nebraska National Guard members who have already been deployed four months longer than expected because of President Bush's "troop surge."

Most of them, hailing from eastern Nebraska, were due home in March but now won't be back until after the Fourth of July.

Now 550 people is not very many if you live somewhere like New York or Los Angeles, but half a thousand missing from places like Beatrice, Fairbury, Crete or even Lincoln -- some of the places from which the Nebraska contingent hails -- that's a significant number of people.

As we pointed out in February, an Associated Press survey showed that small-town American is bearing an unfair burden in the war in Iraq, with nearly half of the U.S. military deaths there suffered by towns of less than 25,000 population, and one in five from hometowns of fewer than 5,000 people.

That survey, released only days after McCook suffered its first -- and, we pray, only -- casualty of the Iraq war, put Nebraska fifth in per-capita losses with 9.3, following rural states like Vermont, South Dakota, Alaska and North Dakota.

Ironically, it's "red" states like ours that tend to be the most patriotic and supportive of the administration's policies in Iraq.

But let's hope that Gen. Lempke is correct in thinking that the soldiers will be home on time, followed as soon as possible by every other Nebraska military person in Iraq.