This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Friday, December 28th, 2007. I'm Caleb Brown.

The Iraq troop surge announced nearly a year ago is supposed to wind down in 2008,

returning American military numbers back to pre-surge levels.

But what has the surge brought?

How close is Iraq to political reconciliation?

And when will troops come home?

Malu innocent a foreign policy analyst at the Cato Institute offers a review of our most

recent year in Iraq.

Describe the situation in Iraq as of January of 2007.

Well, in late 2006 and going into early 2007, the momentum in Iraq was towards an all-out civil war.

The narrative within the United States was to facilitate partition

by splitting Iraq along sectarian lines.

Now explain partition that doesn't sound like a very nice term.

Essentially what soft partition that's usually what US policy makers have said would be a plausible

strategy a nice clean exit strategy as far as they're concerned, actually is a

euphemism for a forced relocation of Iraqi civilians.

Unfortunately, it would lead to heavy U.S. involvement in the partitioning of Iraq. Many Sunnis actually want to live in a cohesive unified Iraq.

It would ignite Shia and Shia fighting. It would also undermine our alliance with a fellow NATO ally Turkey who doesn't want to see an independent Kurdistan.

So if anything, a soft partition would actually inflame tensions rather than settling them.

But right after the early 2007 President Bush actually

said in his State of the Union address that the United States will be

infiltrating Iraq with 30,000 more US troops in an attempt to pacify Baghdad in Al-Lambar province.

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