As an aaisde for every one who is impreseed that Gates is an Eagle scout, Rumsfeld is an Eagle Scout also and also the recipient of the distinguished Eagle Scout Award and Silver Buffalo.
Anyway, I served in Vietnam and after we cut and ran there, I said we should never get in a fight unless we fight to win. We are no longer fighting to win in Iraq.
We should either terminate Mutadr Al-Sadr (and any other militia heads who oppose the Iraqi government and stir ethnic/religious hatred and disarm their militias), or we should pull back to the North and the South. Neither Turkey nor Iran would attack the Kurds if we have substantial troops based there - plus it will give use base in case we have to take out Iran's nukes. The Sunnis would probably tolerate us to preserve their oil from takeover by the Shiites and the Kurds would be happy for us to stay. This would leave the Shiites and their buddies in Iran to fix up the dilapidated Baghdad and central Iraq infrastructure with no oil resources.
The plan will raise some interesting issues. I share your sympathy for the Kurds. Base troops there as a counter to the Turks? In a war between the Turks and Kurds, we'd be obligated to support our NATO allies, the Turks. Tricky. The Sunni's will demand Baghdad. My understanding there's not much oil in their territory, we'll somehow have to convince the Shia and Kurds to "share". That agreement will last about as long as it takes us to leave. As we leave, either the current Iraqi government will be able to stand up and defend itself, or Iraq will collapse.