OK,
It has been written numerous times by people who know what they are doing that withdrawal, and that is what this is, while in contact with the enemy, which is what this is, is one of the most difficult things for an army to do. Ever.
Is Iraq 'ready' for this? No more than they were a year or three or five ago. For every argument that NOW is the time because of this or that, there is a valid argument that a year or three or five ago was a better time for this or that other reason. I can gauran-damn-tee you that setting a date, as Bush did and Obama stuck to, when the enemy has not been defeated, is an awfully good thing for them to plan around.
Iraq is predominantly Shia and the minority Sunni's were dominant in the 'better' jobs and the Ba'aths were at the top of the food chain being the most practical, ie, willing to do what needed to be done to be in charge and stay there.
All the conditions, the different groups, Shia Iran, Sunni Saudi, Ba'ath Syria, the Kurds, all those conditions and built in conflicts, are still there. Add in 7 years of combat experience learning to deal with the most technologically advanced army the world has ever seen.
Does anyone think, for a moment, that this civil war is over?
Does anyone think, for a moment, that there is ANY chance of ANY US administration adding more troops BACK into Iraq?
Does anyone think that, as violence has been quelled with the successful counter insurgency campaigns, that it has been long enough for our ideas and ways of peace keeping to take hold and become versatile and flexible enough to adapt to changing conditions?
What happens to any bad neighborhood when the police crack down is stopped? When the conditions that existed before that lead to the crack down still exist, only better trained?
It is, I think, now going to become a really, really bad time to be an American in Iraq. Lest you think I am for the troops having stayed, I am ALL for getting ALL of our people out. And it should have been the 'non combats' leaving FIRST and then the combat folks coming out. That is not my idea. That is simply how it is done, hard as it is.
This is madness. And, good lord, I hope I am wrong about the next several years.