As ever Ken, you are the font of sober-second thought to my youthful impulsiveness.

I am very concerned, however, with Iraq becoming a hole from which the US (and the Coalition) finds itself practically unable to crawl back out of in the near-term. That dire possibility has not occurred, and hopefully will not occurr. There is an unpredictability factor, however, that could still kick in; if it does, and in the wrong, removing or at least substantially reducing the troops levels in Iraq may end up being impractical. A full-fledged and sustained fight between Shi'ite factions that drags on for a couple years with no clear winner might fit such a bill. That, or a Sunni about-face if fears of Shi'ite domination come to head, or both, would make things very sticky. Things are looking better, but things aren't out of the woods in Iraq, not quite yet.