‘Why we’re staying in Iraq.’

Newsweek: “The British are leaving, the Iraqis are failing and the Americans are staying — and we’re going to be there a lot longer than anyone in Washington is acknowledging right now. … [W]hat few people seem to have noticed is that Gen. David Petraeus’s new ‘surge’ plan is committing U.S. troops, day by day, to a much deeper and longer-term role in policing Iraq than since the earliest days of the U.S. occupation. How long must we stay under the Petraeus plan? Perhaps 10 years. At least five. … To a degree little understood by the U.S. public, Petraeus is engaged in a giant ‘do-over.’” (Via Atrios)