Time to call for a few more Friedman's in giving Iraq a chance:

TIKRIT, Iraq - A U.S. general warned Saturday that increased Sunni attacks in a province extremists call the center of their Islamic state in Iraq may delay plans to hand it over to Iraqi troops by the end of the year.

Plans call for all provinces to be transferred to Iraqi security control by Dec. 31, with the hope that U.S. troops could begin to leave. But increased attacks by Sunni insurgents could delay the transfer of Diyala, just northeast of Baghdad, Maj. Gen. Benjamin Mixon told The Associated Press.

Perhaps I'm a bit naive. But doesn't it make sense that if the insurgents (all of em') in Iraq wanted to get the U.S. out of Iraq they would lay low and stop attacking? Certainly after a U.S. withdrawal they could then resume their fight for control?

In fact, that's exactly what the Shiites are doing. But not the Sunni's. I think the reason they, particularly Sunni's and more radical Shiites, continue to oppose the occupation is a combination of human nature and strategic positioning. Beating the U.S. in Iraq would represent a shift in political power in the region which might just force Israel to deal with the Palestinian issue.

I also think the war in Iraq has also become the battleground for a larger conflict between Sunnism and Shiaism, just like predicted by knowledgeable observers of the region. So now the U.S. is the proxy military for both sides, stuck in the middle with our "allies" providing much of pressure to stay. The American people want us out, the Shia have been playing nice to assists us in leaving. It's mostly (for now) the Sunni's who continue to rock the boat because they know that a U.S. withdrawal means a power vacuum filled by the Shiites. Our "friends" (all predominately Sunni with Shia unrest within their borders) Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt and the Arabs states do not want that to happen. So ironically the American military, at the behest of the regional Sunni governments, continues to fight against Sunni insurgents in Iraq.

This feels like the Twilight Zone ......