To salvage stability from what looks like inevitable chaos in Iraq, the United States needs a new strategy that produces security, political reconciliation and hope.

That should involve sending more U.S. troops – at least on a temporary basis – while pressuring the Iraqi government for reform and mounting a massive jobs project to reduce unemployment in the country.

It would be politically impossible for the Bush administration to increase U.S. troop levels after Democrats won the recent elections, but conceivably it could be done if the idea is blessed by the Iraq Study Group headed by former Secretary of State James Baker and former Rep. Lee Hamilton, D-Ind.

Even though only 16 percent of Americans favor sending more U.S. troops, according to election exit polls, they’re desperately needed to secure Baghdad, to train Iraqi forces and undercut the population’s increasing dependency on sectarian militias.

The offer to send more troops ought to be contingent on the Iraqi government’s willingness to take steps, at long last, toward national reconciliation and its willingness to bring the militias under control.

To undergird the case, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki should be told that if he doesn’t take necessary steps – and soon – U.S. withdrawal will be inevitable, with disastrous consequences for him and his country.