I've long been a wee bit puzzled by the "okay, we should leave Iraq but leave troops there just in case..." crowd. One of the "just in cases" is the potential for a wider regional war. I'm really not sure how our presence - especially a diminished "50,000 or whatever number I pulled out of my ass" presence - would prevent a regional war. Mostly it would ensure our potential involvement.
I assume all these Turkish troops on the border aren't planning to do much, but what exactly would we do if they did? We certainly have many levers of power we can use against Turkey, and going to war against Turkey seems to be the least effective one because it would be, you know, insane.
