important to acknowledge that this, like the Iraq Study Group report on which it draws heavily, is not actaully a plan for resolving anything in Iraq but a framework for developing a plan.

There are a lot of statements saying things like the US must use its diplomatic power to bring Iraq's neighbors into the process and convince them that it's better to be committed to stabilizing Iraq than to jockey for whatever gains they can come up with. (That's a paraphrase, obviously).  

And in fact, that's a big part of what we need to be doing.  

And we need to negotiate with Shia, Sunni, and Kurd to help them find ways to resolve issues of territorial control, oil distribution, etc.

These approaches, are a framework, not a plan.

No one has a plan, yet. We can't.  We have to start the negotiations, figure out what can realistically be achieved, and hope that we can assist the IRaqis in coming up with something that doesn't entail too much more of a bloodbath.

It's the right framework, I believe.  We should be promoting it to the American people. But somehow, we also have to be honest about the fact that Bush/Cheney got us into an extremely complex and fragile situation and smashed it like Humpty Dumpty's egg.  We really don't know how much we can -- or any combination of we, the Iraqis, and international support can -- put back together.

That's sad, and grim, but that's the reality. THere may be civil war in that area for the next decade.  Somehow, we have to make clear to the American people that there is no guaranteed good outcome at this point -- only the best way to approach finding the best that can be managed now.

After so many Iraqis and Americans dead...