It may well be that some Iraqis would want a continued US presence in their country because of a belief that the Americans would somehow protect various ethnic elements from going after one another with blood on their minds. My own experience in the Middle East and elsewhere in the developing world suggests that there's usually a substantial difference between what people say for the sake of convenience and out of the exigencies of self-interest, and what they truly believe. Do Kurds, Shias, and Sunnis truly relishe the thought of an alien military presence on their soil, perhaps indefinitely?
Given the US military's sorry record in maintaining any noteworthy law and order, let alone peace in the country, do Kurds, Shias and Sunnis really think that continued US presence is going to improve the situation? I would apportion a lot of characteristics to these communities, but naievete isn't one of them. Iraqis have seen for themselves over nearly two years now the calamities visited upon them. Why would they wish for more of the same?
I have been traveling throughout the Muslim world for the last two years for my new memoir-book, tentatively titled "Them: Why Muslims Are Different From You and Me" (to be published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux). A dominant observation is how much the US government is despised universally. As a lifelong journalist, I was struck --and saddened -- by the fact that there seemed to be no almost no exceptions to this. And the hatred of the US government invariably spills over to an increasing dislike of Americans. I found fewer cultures to be welcoming to Americans. It was so very different in the early 1970s, when I first started roaming internationally as a journalist. Americans were genuinely liked in most places, and certained welcomed as guests. But even back then, few Muslims -- or any other denizens of the Third World -- wanted a permanent US military presence on their soil.