Jen, putting aside every geopolitical and geostrategic consideration you listed, there’s a more immediate development that the administration might not want to “screw up” in Iraq:

The number of U.S. troops killed in combat in Iraq has fallen to its lowest level since they invaded in 2003, the spokesman for U.S. forces in Iraq said on Wednesday.

In the first two months of this year 19 U.S. soldiers were killed in Iraq, down from 148 in the same period two years ago, Major-General David Perkins told a joint news conference with Baghdad security spokesman Major-General Qassim Moussawi.

This is the most recent evidence of a well established trend, but analysts use the terms fragile and reversible for a reason. If any political demagoguing manifests as Iraq policy that endangers American soldiers, the public will be unforgiving — as they should be.