There was an interesting Financial Times article on how to internationalize the conflict on the way out. I provide the intro which is well written and recommend you read the whole article.
As the US begins to acknowledge the magnitude of its defeat in Iraq, the conflict looks more than ever like a speeded-up, scaled-down re-enactment of Vietnam. A tragedy that took a dozen years to unfold in south-east Asia has played out in less than four in Mesopotamia. Once again an intervention that sprang largely from idealistic, anti-totalitarian motives has gone awry because of an administration’s deceptions, incomprehension and incompetence. Once again the domino theory at the heart of the case has been disproved – and once again America finds itself looking for a way out that will not compound the catastrophe.
As in the final stages of the Vietnam war, the US faces the question: if it has lost, why is it still there? One answer is that President George W. Bush is a stubborn man. Even this week, Mr Bush was insisting it would not withdraw "until the mission is complete" – an apparent synonym for "when hell freezes over". A better answer is that the US is now in Iraq to prevent genocide. Without a military force separating Sunni and Shia, the present savagery could turn Cambodian, with remaining secular democrats as the first victims. A power vacuum could provide a new operational base for al-Qaeda and severe sectarian violence could spiral into all-out civil war and regional conflict. As awful as it is now, Iraq could get much worse.
But if the mission in Iraq has devolved into preventing a bigger bloodbath, the US is the worst imaginable occupier. The presence of specifically American troops is itself instigating a great deal of the current violence. US forces, unlike most European ones, are not trained, skilled or experienced at peacekeeping. Iraq does need a foreign army. It just does not need an American army. This mismatch suggests a final disaster mitigation strategy: replace departing US troops with a more effective referee.
The obvious objection to this proposal is: who on earth wants to send troops to Iraq now? The remnants of Mr Bush’s coalition of the willing – Brits, Aussies, Fijians – are as eager to get home as Americans are. The United Nations ended its Iraqi operations following the horrific bombing of its Baghdad headquarters in 2003 and is not waiting for a return invitation. Asking for additional help in Iraq now is likely to provoke not just rejection, but hoots of scorn and derision.
