U.S. and Iraqi Interests May Work Against Pullout

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/11/world/middleeast/11iraq.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=iraqi%20intersts%20may%20work%20against%20withdrawal%20deadlines&st=cse

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Wed, Aug 11, 2010 at 10:18 AM
Subject: re: U.S. and Iraqi Interests May Work Against Pullout
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    Four years ago, while the media coverage was all about the Surge, general Petraeus made deep changes in our stance in Iraq. Instead of focusing solely on national institutions, we began backing and arming sectarian militias. While these groups were successful in reducing the daily carnage, they will resume the civil war the instant the U.S. forces are gone. It must now be the the U.S. president's goal to obscure that instant, or to push it off onto a next administration.

Barry Levine