Another Reason to Leave Sooner Rather than Later

The Iraqi's have squandered the chance to make some political deals (oil revenues, the Kurds' and Sunni's status in Maliki's moderate-Shia regime, etc.) and have made unexpected interpretations of the SOFA (Status of Forces Agreement) that saw US combat troops removed from most cities. the Iraqi's rely on the US for intel, air support, fuel, logistics.....and they revel in showing that they are in charge all the while:

• US convoys can no longer pass through checkpoints in Baghdad without prior approval and an Iraqi escort. American night-time raids in pursuit of insurgents have also been curtailed by Iraqi officials who gained the right to veto all such missions on July 1.
• The American military has little choice but to comply with the new rules, leaving many units involuntarily confined to their bases.
  

If US troops are this confined, let's accelerate the drawdown. What point is there in stretching our military so thin for these people? When US troops have to be concerned about being arrested for responding to attacks, we can reasonably say that the time for us to leave it to them is coming sooner rather than later. I would strongly favor accelerating the drawdown schedule for Iraq as well as slightly slowing and shrinking the financial and logistics support we provide the Iraqi government.

Update: Maliki gets it.
- posted by john @ 5:45 PM