I think there are two different factions who wanted war in Iraq. I think there is a faction who wanted Iraq to become Balkanized, and another faction who wanted to establish and keep a long-term US presence in Iraq for the purpose of establishing control over Iraqi oil. I think both factions were working together before, and that's why there was almost a complete media blackout of any news that didn't put the war in a good light for the first year or so. I think that the faction that wants Iraq balkanized is agitating in the mainstream media now about the problems in Iraq so that the US will pull out, thus rendering Iraq completely helpless in the face of civil war, and ultimate dissolution.

I don't know what the right course of action would be for the US at this point, but I don't think I feel particularly comfortable with either of the agendas I've described above. Rock and a hard place, looks like to me.