Yitshak Nakash writes that if the U.S. drops the ball, Iraq shatters, and offers some suggestions for weakening Sadr's ability to create Civil War.

The big problem with all such talk is that no one has any credible plan to end the meddling by foreign governments, particularly Iran. Imagine the problems we'd have if Mexico and Canada were smuggling arms to insurgents in this country. Prohibition failed in large part to the government's inability to put a stop to smuggling alcohol into this country. Iraq has a long border without any good way of controlling it.

One lesson from Vietnam that hasn't been learned is that until we take the fight to the source of the weapons and fighters outside the country, we'll make no progress pacifying the country. One of the things that brought the North Vietnamese to peace talks was our bombing of Nanoi and Haiphong Harbor. A local insurgency in Iraq can't be stopped until we cut off its supplies from outside.