"The scheduled troop withdrawal will relieve these actors' sense of insecurity towards the United States, and relations could eventually warm to a sense of trust. Undoubtedly, Iran and Syria each have strong interests in keeping Iraq unified and bringing stability to the country."
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"Could eventually warm to a sense of trust" What a hoot! As usual, an intellectual says the answer to all Middle East problems is for the US to get out and trust the good intentions of countries who have manifestly shown they don't have good intentions.

Get out of Iraq, then Afghanistan, then cut Israel adrift because the neighbors feel constrained by our presence. Wonderful. No doubt the author also thinks any disputes can be solved in the UN.

And that America must one day realize that it is not in its interest to police the region and stay there indefinately.

I thought this was a well-pointed article, and as the author mentions, and it has been clear about other regional crises in the Middle East like post-2006 Labanses crisis, Afghanistan crisis, or recently the Gaza crisis, focusing on the regional factor is really important for American policy. I hope President Obama can change the Bush's confontational policies toward these actors.

1-The article admits that Iran and Syria are the cause of problems in Iraq.
2-The article does not blame them for causing these problems for the Iraqi people.
3-The article blames publicly naming them as the culprits as the reason why they "Syria and Iran" continued to destroy the Iraqi people's lives.
4-The article says that talking to criminals will make them stop, while acknowledging that they are criminals will not.

Amazing indeed.

The word naive is not strong enouugh for this article. Don't they teach history & geography At Harvard anymore?