From Bagdad to the country side

Submitted by Lloyd Klein (Canada), Nov 1, 2006 at 16:39

You said "I agree that we do not want Islamists ruling in Iraq but I wonder why the threat in Iraq is so important that American and other Western forces must fight them with boots on the ground in Baghdad."

I'll tell you why. The allies retreating to the country side, will be seen as a retreat, by all warring parties. After a brief but failed attempt to put down the Sunni opposition and the insurgency, the Shia majority will invite the insurgents into the government, just like Hiszbullah was invited into the Lebanese parliament to appease them. Then, in the ensuing calm, the Iraqi parliament will ask the allied forces to leave, which they are committed to do. The end result will be to leave Iraq as an Islamist controlled, failed state; and definitely not an ally in the war against "Terrorism".

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