As if Al Qaeda and terrorists existed only in Iraq.
The majority of them are now present in Iraq.
Hindsight is useless to help Iraq, although it may give us a better idea how to handle future confrontations in the region. I have no doubt that we will have them.
We should have retained the Iraqi army, paid for an equivalent Shiite force, assigned them to partitioned portions of the country (with Kurdistan responsible for their own security), put a military council of equal representation in charge of the country with the instruction to plan for a democratic transition on their own timeline. Any attempt at a return to dictatorship would be met with a return visit by our troops, who otherwise would be stationed outside the region.
As it is, disbanding the Iraqi army was the worst decision that could have been made, converting security into insurgency. As it is, Iraq is facing a hellish Catch-22 around November of this year with the referendum on Kirkuk. If the referendum is delayed, the Kurds will join the civil war. If the referendum is held, the Arabs and Turkmen of Kirkuk will be slaughtered. We have no security forces, either internal to Iraq or American military, that can police that area and avoid either outcome.
So we should retreat from Iraq and go after al Qaeda elsewhere (as if we're NOT going after al Qaeda elsewhere??) and let al Qaeda have Iraq.
Oh yeah, THAT makes sense.