[Rhodes22-list] Leaving Iraq?

[David Bradley]

A lot of interesting posts, opinions, facts, and speculation the past few
days.  Regardless of whether there is or was a plan for quickly
accomplishing the mission (or whether the mission was clearly defined), it's
pretty clear to me that we need a new plan now.  Wouldn't now be the time to
try to create a Regional Solution?  It seems to me our Middle East policies
have been out of step with the region for decades, having been grounded in a
post-WWII set of assumptions.

My opinion:  we'll never fix this ourselves, and the forces from outside
Irag are fueling the dissension from within, so they'll have lttle hope of
solving it on their own.  Somewhere between the dogma of religous
revolutionaries and self-interest of oil sheiks is the potential for an
educated Middle Eastern middle class.  How 'bout the USA help create THAT
coalition?

Dave B