Chavez wrote:
"The jaws of imperialism and hegemonism have both us and Belarus in their grip."
Hehe. Funny guy, that Hugo Chavez. Unless he meant Russia, in which case he did have a valid point about Belaurs.
As for the troop withdrawal, it's completely crazy. I'm all against the war, but withdrawing now would not only be seen a sign of huge weakness, it would also completely ***** up that country. Even more than it is now. It would mean leaving it in the hands of extremists militias, and is surely the best receipe for anoher hardcore fanatic Islamist governemnt in the region. It is suicidal.
One option, though by no means easy, it to be nice and friendly to the UN again. Make a few concessions, say "Sorry about the mess, we learnt our lesson", and let them take over.
The reasoning is that American troops fuel the flames of the sectarian violence, and are a convenient excuse for all the killings. But at the same time, the Iraqi army is nowehere near ready to take over. They need **** loads more trainnig and money.
So crank up the diplomacy, get the friendly-American-face out there, and let the UN send Muslim peacekeepers to Iraq, and NATO can train the army.
It might sound far-fetched, but I think you can't defeat the insurgents/ terrorists by military power alone. What you have to do is to get the average Iraqi on your side. Without the cooperation of the local population, these guys will run out of places to hide. And this can only really happen when American troops are replaced by "neutral" Muslim UN peace-keepers.