Did the Iraq regional conference accomplish anything?

Although it is certainly too soon to know whether the regional conference in Iraq with its neighbors will bear any fruit, at a minimum it does demonstrate that the government of Iraq is not completely comatose and not completely a puppet of the U.S. That's at least a start.

Now, regardless of what happens with the U.S. troop "surge", the important thing to look for is incremental evidence that the Iraqi leadership is making a serious attempt to distance itself from the U.S.

My sense is that the U.S. military leadership in Iraq knows the situation full well and will be very cautious of making any heavy-handed missteps and will give the Iraqi leadership any openings that they want to exploit.

I'm at least semi-optimistic. Expect more chaos for sure, but the willingness of the U.S. to tolerate discussions between Iraq and Iran and Syria is real progress.

All of this said, the really important thing for the U.S. to do is to simply leave ASAP.

-- Jack Krupansky