Patters

I'm sure I don't need to the post the links about Mosques being burned and Shiites and Sunnis killing each other. It really does look like Iraq could be plummeting into civil war. From Al Qaida's perspective, this is good. So could this be Al Qaida's checklist:

(1) Attack the United States
(2) Turn the United States into an ally to overthrow Saddam
(3) Get the United States to create fear in Iran to secure victory for their religous right wing
(4) Promote chaos and anarchy in Iraq
(5) Get the people of Iraq to demand the U.S. to leave
(6) Use threats and violence to set up an anti-American Islamic state
(7) Build an alliance with Iran

If that's their plan, then they're now moving into step 4, and our best bet will be to shift the problem to the UN and provide the UN with the kind of military and humanitarian support it needs to try to stabilize the situation. It's a big mess the Republicans have made, and it won't be easy to fix, but one things for sure, let's not keep letting the guy who fell into Al Qaida's trap try to get us out of it.

BlueTalon

(...play Twilight Zone music now...)

dryheat44

I don't think AQ is winning. I don't think they're losing either. The civil war is unavoidable. It will happen within 60 days of the US significantly reducing forces, if not before.

The best thing possible would be to make Iraq two countries. Sunnis have hated Shi'as for decades and have long felt that they are the "true Muslems". That's not going to change.

The best thing for the US to do would be to remove themselves from all affairs Middle East, including Palestine/Israel. That represents the best chance for security of the U.S. Of course, it will never happen.

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When it's third and 10, you can have the milk drinkers and I'll take the whiskey drinkers every time. -- R.I.P. Max McGee

PatsWickedPissah

Sadly I agree with your 1st point. Civil War is sometimes inevitable and is a solution. I'd thought it likely in Iraq, then changed my mind as events progressed and now I've flip-flopped back into thinking it probable. Sometimes you need a conflict to settle things.

And yes, in an ideal world we could go all-Buchannan style and isolate ourselves from the ME. It would work for at least a generation, maybe two. Then we'd have to go isolate ourselves from Eurabia.

Tunescribe

It's the same old naieve, simplistic, Western perspective we applied to Vietnam. You can't force foreign cultures to embrace Western values no matter how fundamental you believe "freedom and democracy" are to the human condition. (Some folks just don't think like us -- go figure, George!) Invading Iraq was Bush's version of the Crusades, with Iran and Syria up next. It stands to reason that Bush and his buddies NEVER wanted to get Bin Laden after 9/11 and STILL don't. If they did, they'd have no excuse for continuing the Crusades in a perverse mission to redraw the world map. But of course, they figured wrong, and once we're gone Iraq will be far from the democratized ally that Bush fantasized. A rational president would've put everything into rooting out Bin Laden and foiling Al Qaida while leaving Iraq out of the equation.

wistahpatsfan

Looks like civil war might be starting today, unfortunately. This is inevitable.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/...ain/index.html

Harry Boy

What they are doing now is nothing new, those people in the middle east have been slaughtering each other for thousands of years, if they can't change you they kill you.

DarrylS

The comparison to Viet Nam has long been minimized, however as time goes on looks more and more like the quagmire of 40 years all over again. I do not know the role of our troops in the event of a civil war, who will be the good guys and who will be the bad??

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"Being the best doesn't mean you always win. It just means you win more than anyone else".. tweet from Kurt Warner to Tom Brady.

All_Around_Brown

Who are we kidding? Civil war has been fomenting for over a year. Only now it makes headlines. And our forces are going to try to stop it? Or get out of the way?

Which position do we take? Redeploy over the horizon as Murtha wants? Or stay the course and finish our bases as the neo-cons want?

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