I'd set a 1 month pullout schedule for US funded operations in Iraq and tell the new Iraqi government that extended use of the US military on a contract basis is available. This way, Iraq has direct motivation to speed up the transition to their internal forces but doesn't lose the capabillity of keeping itself together.
To make it interesting for the US soldiers, make the rates charged for their services high enough to support better pay and give them the option of leaving if they're uninterested in being mercenaries.
It's win-win: The US is no longer the "outsider pushing its agenda and timeline on the middle east", Iraq can control its own future by setting the training schedules and having direct accountabillity, the US stops hemorrhaging money, and the soldiers get more money.
For domestic issues, I'd drop the Patriot Act and lobby support for a home defense strategy based on educating local law enforcement at a state level. The federal government has too much power, and the Patriot Act is the kind of structure that makes it even stronger and removes accountability.
We are the United States of America. We're not the Kingdom of America. The pendulum swings back and forth for the balance of power between federal and local, and it's time for it to swing back to the states.
