Withdrawl Pains

I was reading this story about Petraeus asking to stop troop withdrawls because of a flare up in violence in Iraq, and it got me thinking... I'll admit, this is a random thought, not anything grounded in real, analytical knowledge of military strategy. (I last won a game of Risk in the mid 80's.)

I wonder if the big terrorist organizations (AQ, et. al.) are glad that we're in Iraq. We are stirring up the Muslim world, which makes it easier for them to (a) recruit and (b) get funding. More importantly, we're less able to deploy elsewhere, particularly in Afghanistan, where the real work needs to be done.

And maybe we are running the risk of turning what was a stable (if tyrannical) secular leaning nation into a new hot bed of jihadism. Because, let's face it, we're going to pull out of Iraq someday. If we pull out today, in the midst of 5-year-old chaos, will things be better or worse than if we pull out in 2013 in the midst of ten-year-old chaos. (Yes, I know, the goal is to pull out in the midst of peace and democratic prosperity, which is the ideal case, but one which cannot be guaranteed...)

Like I said, just idle thoughts. (And probably thoughts that have been proposed, argued over, and dismissed three years ago. But they're new to me...)