That's fine. I'm not joking.
They may have a 'legitimate right' for Iraq's opposition to resist a foriegn military, but there is none such acknowledged to resist the Iraqi government. The U.S. presence has huge propaganda value for the insurgents, but we can take that away from them. If we withdraw to a few bases out in the desert, as we are basically planning on doing now, and leaving everything else to the Iraqis, then the fight between the foriegn invaders and the Arab resistance becomes a fight between Iraqi citizens and foriegn terrorists.
That's a horse of a different color, folks.
So, relax. There's nothing wrong with handing the country back to the locals. We don't want to occupy Iraq forver. If the political leaders feel they're ready for us to withdraw so they can take over, then I'm all for that. I know we keep saying 'all the terrorists have to do is wait', but that only works if there's nothing to replace us when we leave. The Iraqi military and police can deal with the terrorists just fine, when properly motivated, and will, once we get off their backs.
Besides, it's not like we're really leaving. We'll just be out of sight from the average Iraqi. They'll still benefit from our air power, special forces training, and logistical support, for a very long time. So, lets not be overly pessimistic about moving into the next phase.
bttt
Exactly. I don't at all buy that they couldn't take care of this problem on their own. Some people here at FR forget how huge that country is. They have at least 3-4M able-bodied men/older teens to deal with this problem. That's way bigger than our troop level. They have to have the will to do it and then do it.
Also, once we leave and this is just a situation of an Iraqi government dealing with Iraqi revolutionaries, then the official Iraqi government can appeal to the UN and the member nations individually to form a huge peacekeeping force-- letting France and Germany show that they just aren't merely anti-American when it comes to military operations.
The military plan is to draw down to 92k by the end of '06. The pull out is already underway. What we are seeing the mad scramble to take credit for the "victory", but here and in Iraq.