What comes after U.S. pulls out of Iraq?

U.S. defense secretary Robert Gates met Jordan's King Abdullah II on Tuesday, and discussed peace in the Middle East. The resulting news article is very frustrating to read, because it says just enough to let you know that there is much more that is not being revealed.

Let's hope that they discussed a scenario for Iraq that begins with the pullout of most or all U.S. forces. The United States will need to remain involved in Iraq after the pull out in order to do whatever it can to maintain some semblance of stability in the region. Specifically, it will need to avoid a Sunni massacre by Iraq's Shiite majority, which has a lot of anger pent up after being ruthlessly suppressed by Saddam Hussein's Sunni regime.

A solution for peace in Iraq at this point, needs to begin with the withdrawal of U.S. troops, but that withdrawal must happen in conjunction with other efforts aimed at preventing the situation in Iraq from deteriorating even further after U.S. forces have left.