So, Disengagement is a Negative

Not not only Israel.

The United States (thanks to JD:-

The State Department has asked the Pentagon for more troops to provide security to U.S. facilities in Iraq.  There are some 850 U.S. troops in Iraq at the moment, including a detachment of 50 Marines from Bahrain bolstering security for the U.S. embassy in Baghdad.  Other troops are embedded with Iraqi and Kurdish forces as advisors, and are providing intelligence support and ground liaison for air strikes.The new request is reportedly for some 300 troops to beef up security for the embassy and for a U.S. facility at the international airport in Baghdad.

In early 1973, a major argument for America to adopt a policy of "strategic disengagement" was made.  The idea has been repeated by Stephen Walt now:

No, I don't mean isolationism: What I mean is taking seriously the idea of strategic disengagement and putting the whole region further down on America's list of foreign policy priorities. Instead of constantly cajoling these states to do what we think is best -- and mostly getting ignored or rebuked by them -- maybe we should let them sort out these problems themselves for awhile.

Not only Israel:

...the policy I'm suggesting would mean the United States would stop its futile efforts to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. 

but

 the United States would also end its military and economic aid to Egypt

 Yet, the opposition is strong:

[D]isengagement is misguided and dangerous,

and here, too:

The Obama administration must recognize that the policy of disengagement both in Iraq and Syria, has failed terribly, and that the rise of a terrorist state in the Levant poses a direct threat to US security and will necessitate American action sooner or later.

Last night, I caught the end of  Ali Khedery on BBC's Hardtalk and he was asked about disengagement.  He said blunt out that disengagement would completely devastate the Middle East although he did not mention israel.  Maybe that's because he's
a former adviser to a string of American ambassadors in Baghdad. and resides in Dubai.

Where was he in 2004?

^