Umm...I don't know that I like this...

The United States and Iraq have reached an agreement about our troops leaving their country. The agreement sets up a clear timetable that gives us a deadline of three years to be out.

It's good that they feel secure enough to want to take over their own defense and security, their own law enforcement. Policing and defending the world was not what our army was set up to do. In fact, the Founding Fathers would have kittens over the idea that the nation they created kept a standing army in the first place.

However.

Announcing the timetable to all and sundry falls under what is known as a bad idea. All al Qaeda has to do is wait for us to leave. The Iraqi army and police force cannot stand up to them with the training and cultural habits they have.

And as al Qaeda moves back into Iraq, we will face the same dance with the same partner over the same issue as last time. This time, however, I do not doubt that the attacks will be worse, and the damage longer lasting.

That's not saying that I think Iraq would willingly host al Qaeda. No, the people of Iraq would not want that terrorist group using their country for a home base, intimidating the people around them and killing the ones they couldn't intimidate, any more than most of the people of Afghanistan want the Taliban in power. Unfortunately, in that area, as in our own inner cities and other tribal cultures, the ones with the most guns and most willingness to use violence are the ones that hold the power.

Those who hold with the rule of law cannot stand in the face of that kind of ruthlessness here in the United States. It may be different over in the Middle East.

I pray, for the sake of the people over there, that it will be different.