Really? Our role there is known? The weak, powerless government thrown together based along ethnic lines is really the test you want for our the acceptability of our forces on the ground for Iraqis.

The surge may have been greeted well if it were truly a surge, but, as the article makes clear, it has changed nothing about our manpower committment to Iraq in the long term, and might necessitate a permenant escalation lest those Sunni militias who we conveniently armed and handed over territory to should raise their guns against the 'government' yet again. Of course, that was just a culmination of a process that was started because there were not enough troops on the ground in the first place (your counterfactual is absurd). So we are stuck holding peace between two sides, and essentially to protect the Sunnis from an inevitable massacre.

Raise your hands if you think the Sadrists are going to be cooperative in the long run once we've run out of carrots to keep them quiet.