IMO, coalition troops should be only placed to guard the Iraq borders from outsiders, weapons coming in. Let Iraqi military do the clean up of existing militants inside the country. There is no place for a foreign entity, troops in the middle of a civil war. As strange as it might sound but Saddam, using his horrible means was the only one that controlled it. Todate neither us not Iraq government can find a workable alternative to Saddam in that particular country. It is a tough task to persuade shiites, sunnies, kurds and everyone inbetween to live in peace when you are dealing with simple incompatibility present over tens if not hundreds of years.

DIviding the country is not a workable scenario. Maybe they need to divide their government 1/3-1/3-1/3 ingoring the population ratio. Give that government a chance to ask for help from outside. They might choose China, former Yugoslavian states for input on how to deal with this shit. US, Britain, none of the big guys have had experience like that to be able to draw on the experience in offering possible ways out.

One thing for certain, coalition forces' presence only fuels the situation. We get out. If government falls and new comes into power it will be an internal affair. If a threat, and only a real theat arises from that country for its neighbours and the world we bomb the shit out of them.

The sooner we get out, the more lives will be saved even if we end up with a govenment that does not dance to our tunes or even openly opposes to our way of life, political structure and refusal to mind our own business.