pop quiz

the president of the u.s.a. recently made the following speech:

• "If America were to pull out before Iraq could defend itself, the consequences would be absolutely predictable, and absolutely disastrous. We would be handing Iraq over to our worst enemies -- Saddam's former henchmen, armed groups with ties to Iran, and al-Qaida terrorists from all over the world who would suddenly have a base of operations far more valuable than Afghanistan under the Taliban."

who are the allies of u.s.a. in iraq? is it: (a) Saddam's former henchmen, (b) armed groups with ties to Iran, or (c) al-Qaida terrorists from all over the world?

answer: (b) those are important to shore up support for prime minister mr. al-maliki, and a bit of (a). indeed, it is not a bad idea to have some connections with and even alliance with these two groups. they represent a good chunk of the iraqi people (not the kurds, of course, but then we have pretty much forgotten them). but here is the rub: if our government doesn't begin to separate out al-qaida leaders from al-qaida sympathizers (a sizable group), and al-qaida from home-grown leaders (try politicians not henchmen), we will never be any closer to "handing over" anything to anybody.