Thank you for this! Coll is a wonder and a national treasure. If you haven’t read his Ghost Wars, I highly recommend it as a look at US short-sightedness that led to Al Qaeda’s ascent.

I have very serious doubts that Iraq can be held together by anything but a tyrannical strong man. If we’re lucky, it will be a strong man who cooperates with the US. That’s about all we can hope for. The Mahdi Army is still there, and I believe that there is internecine violence woven into Iraq’s DNA like a retrovirus. What about the Kurds? What happens to them when we leave? Will the Sunnis and Shias embrace each other in brotherly love? Will the sects within the Shia and Kurdish communities leave each other alone?

Will the lion lie down with the lamb?