http://www.juancole.com/2007/07/iraq-minorities-in-extreme-peril-bbc.html
Friday, July 13, 2007 Informed Comment
<snip>
This plan of keeping troops in Iraq to fight "al-Qaeda" seems to me
naive. Who is al-Qaeda? If you mean Iraqi Sunnis who have become Salafi
Jihadis, then it seems unlikely that the US military can fight them
successfully with a smaller force. It is just wishful thinking. If
160,000 US troops cannot do it, a smaller force cannot do it. And, the
smaller you make the force, the more the US military becomes a sitting
duck for militias and others. Likewise it is no good saying you'll keep
troops in Kurdistan. Kurdistan is landlocked, and depends heavily for
investment, trade and a route to the rest of the world on Turkey. No
way to provision a US base unless the Turks give in and say they will
permit its provisioning.
If you leave small expeditionary forces inside Iraq to fight
"al-Qaeda," they will likely get massacred at some point, and then
you'll be pulled right back into the maelstrom.
Make as many prudent political and military arrangements for Iraq as
you still have the ability to make, and then . . . get out.
<end excerpt>
Michael