As You Were

Apparently the U.S. is perfectly content to return to it's delusion "it's fine" mindset in Iraq. Despite the recent paroxysm of violence in Iraq (effective nullifying any argument that the U.S. "surge" is doing anything of consequence), Maliki having his ass handed to him, Iran displaying it's regional muscle, and the U.S. sitting around saying "what the fu ....!", here's Ambassador Ryan Crockers conclusion:

Overall, though, Crocker, who is set to testify before Congress next week, insists the situation in Iraq has improved and says he expects the "political and economic progress" to continue.

From my perspective there's been only one outcome from the beginning. It was baked into the cake during the colonial middle eastern period and has to play out.

Whether we removed Hussein or he was finally knocked off by the Shiites, Iraq was/is going to go through a civil war. The outcome of that war will be bloody and highly disturbing to the region with the Shiites (and team Iran) likely strengthened leading to increased tensions between regional Sunni's, Shiites and Israel . Ultimately these groups will have to figure out how to live with each other. The only relevant question to the U.S. has been how many Americans, and how much money, would we spend in our impotent attempts to use our military to be a regional player. The U.S. can stay in Iraq another 10 years and the outcome will still be the same.

Added: And let's not forget that little Turkish/Kurd problem in northern Iraq ...... Ditto.