Pottery Barn (supposedly) has this policy - “You break it,  you buy it.”  In our scenario, America is the Pottery Barn and we broke Iraq (it was broke before our arrival, but…).  Like many issues, the issue is not whether we should fix it or not, but what is the best way to fix it.  After five years and struggling to meet any of our success “bench marks”, it should be plain that we need new ways to fix.  Right now, the Democrats are offering new & better solutions in Iraq compared with the Republicans, who has a Presidential candidate suggesting we might be there for 100 years.  The Democrats are starting to insist that the Iraqi’s pay for their own reconstruction - “Democrats plan to push legislation this spring that would force the Iraqi government to spend its own surplus in oil revenues to rebuild the country, sparing U.S. dollars.”

Sen. Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said pausing troop reductions would signal to the Iraqis that the United States was committed to the war indefinitely.

“Rather, we need to put continuous and increasing pressure on the Iraqis to settle their political differences, to pay for their own reconstruction with their oil windfalls, and to take the lead in conducting military operations,” said Levin, D-Mich.

Aside from the “windfall” rhetoric, Senator Levin is spot on.  It is unfortunate that the Republicans, being led by the President, are not offering substantive change and solutions in Iraq.  Senate Foreign Relations chairman Joe Biden, D-Del., said, identifying the problem well, “It’s clear to me, and I think to my Republican colleagues as well, the president just says his only plan to is keep roughly 140,000 troops there until the next president becomes president, and hand off the problem to him or her.”   (Lets just hope ‘her’ does not receive the hand off.)