Leaper, the three part thing, i.e. Joe Biden's plan is unrealistic. There is just too much geographic overlap of ethnicities. Baghdad alone would be block by block in some parts. You'd end up with ethnic cleansing like in Yugoslavia only worse.

Actually, the whole "mess" as it is characterized by detractors, really isn't that bad. The whole problem of stabilization/nation-building/harmony among the groups would NOT have been significant and would have long since been solved for the overall good of all Iraqis if not for one factor: the outside force of al Qaeda deciding to prioritize screwing up of Iraq--bombing mosques, killing a bunch of civilians, etc., stirring up ethnic hatred that was always there, but NOT a serious active problem. You can pinpoint the start of the whole "mess" to the bombing of that shrine in Najaf, I think it was.

In sending in outsiders to instigate trouble in Iraq, however, al Qaeda had to de-emphasize committing terrorist acts against American--which, thanks to the Patriot Act and other Bush security measures, had become a "harder target".

People whine about the "mess" in Iraq, how it has cost us 4,000 troops, how it has cost us hundreds of millions of dollars, etc. Well, even one repeat of 9/11 or worse would have cost us near that or more than that, both in money and human cost.