What can we do now there is too much resistance for reconstruction, Iraqi law enforcement, and friendly military patrols in Sunni and Sadr areas? Vietnam is the wrong analogy, Iraqi's haven't shown anything like the discipline of the Viet Cong. The recent attack on a Marine company ( around 100 soldiers) is probably the biggest attack they're capable of.
Better analogies are Algeria, Beruit, & Israel. Westerners in the wrong place at the wrong time get killed. Iraqi's have concluded they will gain more power by fighting Americans or at least pretending to fight Americans then by cooperating. This means Wolfowitz's dream is dead. We can't create a peaceful unified Iraq. The dream was that reconstruction in peaceful Kurdish and Shiite areas would grow these areas and crowd out areas of resistance. Now the reverse is happening, Iraqi police in peaceful areas fear for their lives. Westerners don't know where they can go safely. Allies are leaving, NGO's are leaving, contractors are leaving, Iraqi soldiers and police are quitting. Wolfowitz's dream seemed deluded but still possible last week. Now it's just deluded.
Iraq is now a magnet for al Quida and Hezbollah. Bush is making it more a threat to Americans than it was under Saddam Hussain and it could become more a threat to Americans than Afghanistan was before 9/11. How can this be turned around?
We've counted on Sistani to keep peace with most Shiites but he can't be seen as an American puppet. The Governing Council are puppets, Sistani can't support them. We must give up on the Governing Council. It forces Sistani to support the resistance. Our last chance for a tolerable Iraq is to give Sistani's supporters and the Kurds real power over the areas they can control. A prompt and honest handover of what's left of peaceful Iraq makes Sistani want what we want. It changes the incentives in Iraq's power struggle from gaining power by killing Americans to gaining power by stopping the killing.
Of course this leaves unification of Iraq up to Iraqi's at the risk of civil war but current deluded policy can only do worse.
Of course Bush will cling to deluded policy at any cost. But we can present a way out of the fight or flight delemma we're in now.