We should just pull our troops up to the Kurdish area and tell the rest of Iraq to give us a call when they are finished slaughtering each other like animals.
Culling the herd.
This should have been done shortly after Saddam's regime was removed from power. We could have solidified our presence in the North with the one group that actually does support us (mostly because everyone else hates the Kurds). We could have achieved the bases we wanted to maintain in the region which would have been a nice threat to Syria and Iran, all without being actively involved with this democracy building nonsense which was doomed to failure from minute 1.
Had we done this some Sunni strongman, no doubt one connected to Saddam's regime, would have taken over and dominated all but the Northern areas we'd control. That new regime could be allowed to exist with the understanding that it won't attack or threaten the US. I am quite sure it would have been happy to agree to those terms. The religiously fanatical Shia would have continued to be supressed which would deny Iran the allied government in Iraq which has resulted in what we have done. We would have demonstrated to enemy regimes the world over that they would be removed from power if they attack or threat the US or our allies.
There will be no peace in Iraq until either the Sunni or Shia come to dominate the other. One side has to win. At the rate we are going and with our money and support, the Shia will be strong enough soon and they will want us out at that time. We are very near to having achieved creating a far worse situation in Iraq than existed before we invaded. The Shia are largely ignorant religious fanatics who, at least in the near term, will align themselves with Iran and the likes of Hizbullah.