What would multilateral diplomacy combined with a phased withdrawal of U.S. troops accomplish? According to Cole, if American troops are gone and Sunnis get fair representation in a new unity government, their main grievances disappear. Shiites and Kurds would get an end to the civil war. Iraq's neighbors would avoid the fallout from that war spreading beyond Iraq's borders. The United States would be seen as honest brokers in the Arab and Muslim world, thus taking away one of al-Qaida's main recruiting tools.
None of this would be easy to pull off, but it stands a greater chance of success than the current strategy of the Bush administration.
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