This thread discusses the Content article: Baghdad woes unlikely on Obama agenda

Then he ticks off the family's list of woes: food costs so high they have cut back on all but essentials; jobs so scarce his oldest son peddles trinkets on the street despite a university degree in economics; not enough money left over for a doctor visit or any emergency.

"I pray every day that nobody gets sick," Sami said.
That could be an American saying that. Food costs high, job losses, and of course, for those without employer supplied heath insurance, a number that grows and grows each year, fervant prayers that no one gets sick.

In other words, the George W. Bush economy and health care system. The same economy and health care system that McCain proposes. Stay the course. After all, McCain's national campaign co-chair and chief economic adviser, Senator Phil Gramm, who was dumped from the campaign just yesteraday, said this recession is all in our heads. A "mental recession" as he called it. Stop whining, as Phil says. Remember that the next time you fill up or buy groceries. The bill won't seem so bad if you remember that it is all just a bad dream.

"A pullout would create a vacuum that could be used by many sides," said Salah al-Rubaie, a Shiite vegetable vendor in Kut, about 90 miles southeast of Baghdad. "Sectarian and militia killings would return as well as looting and robbing. Public life could come to a halt again. That would be a catastrophe."

Hamid Alwan Jassim finds ample evidence against a U.S. withdraw in his home city of Baqouba, the hub of Diyala province where Sunni insurgents are trying to regroup. On Tuesday, double suicide bombings killed at least 28 army recruits.

"Iraq should be stable first, because any early pullout would allow extremists to emerge again and more fiercely," he said.
Sounds to me like they do not trust their own military or leaders, i.e. it does not matter whether we pull out in 16 months or 16 years, which just underscores what I, and others, have been saying for a long, long time....

Iraq's future is up to the Iraqi's. They can step up and take control....or not. We cannot force the eventual outcome, though we can go certainly go broke trying.