Iraq is caught in a vicious and unrelenting cycle of violence, despair and retribution that risks tearing it apart and spilling over into the rest ofthe Middle East.

America has vital geopolitical, energy and economic interests in this troubled region. However, America's support for involvement in Iraq continues to erode. We are dangerously close to the moment when the American people will demand that we leave Iraq and pull back from the Middle East, risking a wider regional conflagration. This is not in the US's interest or the world's.