The tipping point
Nor ought we entertain any illusions about having the Pakistanis and the Indians pull our chestnuts out of the fire. There are Sunni-Shiite massacres and troubles in the cities of Pakistan; there are jihadists by the load in Pakistan's armed forces. The Pakistanis would bring these dangers and sectarian poisons. The Indians, too, are no strangers to religious upheaval; were they to come (and they never will), they would bring the fire along, and the animus of their Hindu majority toward Islam would further inflame an Iraqi setting with big troubles of its own.
Our deliverance lies in Iraq itself; there is no end run we can do around its people. Sooner or later, we and they will discover the truth of Iraq: whether the country holds together and whether Iraqis can surmount their cruel and tragic past. If we grant them our trust, we will have acquitted ourselves well. We will have set the stage for an early and honorable withdrawal and left something on the ground to point to with pride. Or, in the worst of circumstances, we will have shown that the thing was a noble failure, that we have no apologies for the hopes we brought along with the gear into a place that eluded the best of our intentions.
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