The Middle Point

The American debate has focused too often on what we can do to get American troops out of Iraq, and what we can avoid doing if full blown civil war erupts in Iraq.

But, Michael O'Hanlon argues, civil wars do not begin at full force. They start gradually. We need to think about what American forces can and should do then, at the moment when they might be able to head a civil war off, and stop it from getting started.