Virtues of a Smaller Troop Presence in Iraq

High time to bring them home gradually? Probably. I'm of the increasing confidence that Iraqis can take care of themselves. And they want to take care of themselves. The main bulk of the insurgency looks increasingly like foreign Iranians coming in than the actual Iraqis themselves. Moreover, the U.S. soldiers are not being commandeered by someone competent, you know. I've always recognized it, but I did believe that the soldiers might stay to stabilize the country. Maybe after we leave, the thousands-of-years old civilization will reassert itself again without us, and without Saddam.