If America left, would the fighting stop?

In at least one town, Hit, in "western Iraq's Anbar province, a center of Sunni resistance," the answer could be yes. "In Hit, U.S. forces and their Iraqi counterparts are the target of most of the two dozen attacks . . . each week. Residents are quick to argue that the American presence incites those attacks, and they blame the U.S. military rather than insurgents for turning their town into a combat zone. The Americans should pull out, they say, and let them solve their own problems. Increasingly, the U.S. military seems eager to oblige [1] ."

But since there didn't appear to be any fighting between the Shiites and Sunnis in that town, America leaving Hit wouldn't necessarily apply to a reduction in conflict from that perspective. It could offer insight into other areas though.

source
[1] The Washington Post. In Iraqi town, U.S. feels push toward an exit: Residents blame attacks on troop presence. August 4, 2006.

posted: August 5, 2006, 5:50 AM ET
update: August 6, 2006, 7:05 PM ET