To quote Bill Moore
"Here are a couple of key excerpts from that article: (note these are from a key Shi’te with an agenda, but I’m sure Kurds have similar thoughts, and some Sunni’s who desire to have a stable Iraq)

“The Americans are guilty of "major interference, and preventing the forces of the Interior or Defense ministries from carrying out tasks they are capable of doing, and also in the way they are dealing with the terrorists," Hakim charged.
He also urged the United States to take a tougher stand against countries harboring insurgents and their supporters, and called for faster trials of insurgent suspects.
The United States was being too weak against Iraq's insurgency, allowing attacks to mushroom. There are plans to confront terrorists, approved by security agencies, but the Americans reject that," Hakim said. "Because of that mistaken policy, we have lost a lot.
"For instance, the ministries of Interior and Defense want to carry out some operations to clean out some areas" in Baghdad and around the country, including the volatile Anbar province, in the west, he said. "There were plans that should have been implemented months ago, but American officials and forces rejected them," he said. "This has led to the expansion of terrorism.
"We have a capacity to move more quickly than currently," he said. Hakim charged that the United States, evidently fearful of alienating Sunnis, was blocking the arrests of Sunni political leaders who had ties to insurgents. "The mixing of security and political issues" was just another U.S. mistake, he said. "Terrorists should know there would be no dealing with them."End of excerpts end of Bill's quote.

This discussion hinges to my mind on a key word that Bill Moore used, that is "agenda." Admittedly I am pretty much limited to assessing what goes on these days via media, open forums, and veterans. The reason I say agenda is key is simple: the Shia gentlemen quoted above would undoubtedly like to take the gloves off in Anbar Province. The Interior Ministry according to some has become aligned with the Badr Brigade. The spate of Sunni killings laid at their door step is not surprising. As for the Kurds, agenda is certainly operative; happily it has been in line with that of the Coalition, albeit with some significant hiccups in power sharing with the Arabs.

When I dicuss cultural awareness with O/Cs here I always offer my 2 base rules on cultural awarness derived from 15 years as a FAO:

a. Remember always they do not think like you do

b. Remember always that they always have an agenda in all their dealings with you

Admittedly that is hardly rocket science but it has stood me in good stead. As those 2 rules relate to this discussion, I believe that agendas stand to disrupt what we apparently see as victory. A unified stable democracy seems attractive to us; per rule a. I believe that is hardly the case from the viewpoint of any of the components in Iraq's ethnic and religious salad.

With that in mind, pull back may work if we are willing to allow the frictions to work themselves out. That process will not be neat. I still believe that we will ultimately see a Balkanization process take hold with 3 semi-independent states under a nominally central government. The alternatives are indeed less desireable.

Best all,
Tom