Andrew at Obsidian Wings.
If the Iraqi Army cannot be built up to the degree necessary to restore order, there aren’t any particularly good alternatives available to us. Staying in Iraq may help to keep a ceiling on the violence, but that is a ticket to an indefinite presence in Iraq that will not only mean neverending losses for both our forces and Iraqi civilians, but an ongoing goad to Islamists who will seek to strike us in the United States in retribution for our occupation of Iraq. Leaving Iraq may open the floodgates to a level of violence that would make the current carnage a fond memory.
Ultimately, we have no good choices unless there’s a way I’m not aware of to create a national consciousness in the Iraqi Army. As such, while I hate to say it, I think that withdrawal may be the best available option.
Andrew is an experienced military officer and, as far as can be determined without siccing the datamining hounds on him, not a hippie. Keep an eye out as credible people one by one acknowledge that the choice between the undesirable and the impossible isn’t a choice at all.