A Good Idea

http://mobile.nytimes.com/article?a=103166&f=20

In reading this NYT piece on Iraqi's response to Patreus it seems to me the consesus there is things are bad, we can't see them getting better, but they can get a lot worse. From an Iraqi perspective having 160000 Americans isn't that terrible - we do kill plenty of bad people and there aren't nearly as many crazy GIs terrorizing the population as in Vietnam.

But I am still lost as to why AMERICANS would want to spend 150 billion a year maintaining a status quo. Basically pick any systemic, seemingly unsolvable problem in the US - schools, health care, roads, public transport - and it could get FIXED for way less than that. Instead we are using that money to spin our wheels in the Iraq desert.

That said, if we wanted to significantly decrease the carnage in a post withdrawl environment it seems to me that one easy and sensible solution would be to stop handing out briefcases of cash, assault rifles, and logistics training to all the folks most likely cause that carnage.