American and other coalition troops should remain in Iraq until security forces there are ready to shoulder the load.

That’s not President Bush or a neocon think-tanker talking. That’s Iraqi Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, speaking in Japan prior to his scheduled visit with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe:

Hashemi, speaking in English, welcomed a timetable for a withdrawal of U.S. forces but said it needed to be coupled with a clear reform plan of Iraqi national forces.
“If we say that we need one year, one and a half years or even two years to go into a detailed, comprehensive reform for MOD (Ministry of Defence) and MOI (Ministry of Interior) units, we need the coalition forces to stay until this job has been fulfilled,” he said.
“If the American troops pull out, withdraw, before we complete this plan, there is a possibility that the country might slide into chaos and the chaos could lead to a civil war,” he said, adding that it could also lead to regional unrest.