Larry and Jack, it's the peculiar Dem manoeuvering and US political change that put the UN notion in my head. It's not possible for the US to pull out regardless of what the Dems say; they may "redeploy" to Iraq's open spaces or Afghanistan but those troops are not coming home. It's too hot.

I don't buy Colin Powell's early warning "You break it. you fix it."

If US occupation is exacerbating the violence, as claimed, surely there's NATO and UN backchanelling to find a way to replace US troops and find some sort of governance to stop the killing until the Great Powers carve up the region into autonomous units more representaive than before.