I doubt my call for an Iraqi Army take over of the government will receive much support (darn it), so I pondered the situation some more. What we have here is a civil war much like Lebanon (numerous players, not just a couple of groups), and perhaps some similarities to Bosnia.

Perhaps by the definition of insurgency, this would count as an insurgency, but let's face it the current government is unlikely to win over the support of the local populace. I agree with a previous post, it is a pretend government of sorts, only recognized outside of Iraq by the world's diplomatic corps, but not by those it governs. This leads me to my next course of action proposal. Send in a non-bias international actor to act as a peace mediator with the various groups (minus AQ) and work out a peace plan, then send in a UN force under Chpt VI to enforce it.

The groups that won't come to the table to talk should be eradicated. We'll give them enough rope to tie Iraq together, or to hang themselves. Those that won't bargin for their representatives should be cannon floder for an IO campaign directed against them.

We're going to have to get tougher, much tougher to defeat the various armed groups, but first we need to identify those that we can reach a political agreement with. The rest we destroy.

While this sounds like chest thumping I admit, I am not an advocate of military action in most cases, but when it is needed, we need to lift the restrictions on fighting and allow them (us) to defeat the enemy. The alternative is to continue half stepping and dragging the Iraqi people through years of continuing misery. Cliche but true, we need to be cruel to be kind.