Matt Ockwood wrote in to ask:

Dr. Barnett, what is your response to House and Senate Dem. calls for immediate withdrawals? Do we stay and work leverage while talking with Iran etc, or just pull the plug?

Tom's reply:

Pulling plug out of question, but changing our presence open for debate. I think we should pull back from combat, go advisory, and stay over-the-horizon close in Kurdistan and Kuwait, meaning we go to more air-to-ground support ops, focus on training, and let the Sunni-Shiia fight play out some.

Then we'd have leverage over both Iran and Saudi Arabia instead of the other way around.

Bit of a bloodbath? Yes, but that much seems already set in motion. Question is how fast does it go? And how soon can we get neighbors (Syria, House of Saud, Iran) to work for stability instead of fighting us and each other through proxies?

Oh, and how many troops we waste trying to control sectarian violence in Iraq when our foreign policy encourages the same the region over?

I believe we're in a Balkans-like dissolution now, so managing that process realistically (meaning, don't stand in the way of the bullets any more than necessary) is the challenge we're up against now. That, and Bush's instinct to kow-tow to the Saudis.

In Congress, they should push funding limits that try to fence Bush in on any planned strikes on Iran. Dicking around on Iraq over the surge is counter-productive. Resolutions, if any, should focus on upcoming talks with Syria, Saudi Arabia and Iran concerning Iraq.