http://biden.senate.gov/newsroom/details.cfm?id=254935it helps to read something that at least arguably points
a way out, beyond just "pulling out now"....
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Ten years ago, Bosnia was drowning in ethnic cleansing and facing its demise as a unified state. After much hesitation, the United States stepped in decisively with the Dayton Accords to keep the country whole by dividing it into ethnic federations. We even allowed Bosniaks, Croats, and Serbs to retain separate armies. With the help of U.S. troops and others, Bosnians have lived a decade in peace. Now, they are strengthening their common central government, and disbanding their separate armies.
The Bush Administration, despite its profound strategic misjudgments, has a similar opportunity in Iraq
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1. One Iraq With Three Regions
The first element is to establish three largely autonomous regions with a viable but limited central government in Baghdad.
The central government would be responsible for border defense, foreign policy, oil production and revenues. The regional governments -- Kurd, Sunni and Shiite -- would be responsible for administering their own regions.
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2. A Viable Sunni Region With Shared Oil Revenues
The second element of the plan is to gain agreement for the federal solution from the Sunni Arabs by giving them an offer they can't reasonably refuse.
Basically, they get to run their own region. That’s a far better deal than the present alternatives: either being a permanent minority in a centrally run government or being the principal victims of a civil war.
As a major sweetener, we should press the Iraqis to write into the constitution that the Sunnis would receive about 20 percent of all present and future oil revenues. That’s roughly proportional to their size. And it’s far more than they'd get otherwise, since the oil is in the north and south, not the Sunni center. These revenues represent the only way to make the Sunni region viable economically. If Sunnis reject the deal, there is no guarantee they will get any oil revenues.