Complete this: If the U.S. completely withdrew from Iraq right now, _____

[begin_within]

[arcane1]

1. no more American soldiers would die there

[walkon]

27. Ditto

Except change to "no more American servicemen/women". Some American Carpetbaggers will stick around for the "opportunities" to make it big.

[arcane1]

28. and, of course, "contractors"

[baldguy]

2. The Iraqis would work their problems out for themselves.

Just as they're doing now.

[The2ndWheel]

3. we'd be back there eventually.

[katinmn]

4. people around the world would rejoice and flood the country

with humanitarian aid and story after story of atrocities would emerge.

[uppityperson]

17. indeed.

and I would have a party

[The_Casual_Observer]

5. Some brutal dictator guy would emerge. In order for him

to consolidate power & money , he would get the oil flowing & world oil prices would collapse.

[blm]

6. The civil war would heat up even more till the factions SOSed UN peace

making teams who bring in leaders of all sides to come to the table and hammer out an agreement.

[Chipper Chat]

7. Joe Lieberman will sing "Are We Like Sheep?'

(from Handel's Messiah) on Fox News with John Gibson.

[MGD]

8. Iraq would descend into civil war.

Oh wait, that doesn't work anymore.

[katinmn]

19. LOL!

:thumbsup:

[Contrary1]

9. the whole country will fall apart...

just a little bit sooner, that's all. We are fighting a losing battle.

[Chef]

10. The country would more quickly split into three separate ones

with the same result that is going to happen expect with maybe less lives lost.

[TheCowsCameHome]

11. Republicans would have nothing to live for.

[brokensymmetry]

12. we would save American and Iraqi lives, along with

money from our treasury - and, perhaps, some small
vestige of our reputation.

[Jacobin]

13. Iraq could determine its own fate

No doubt in a bloody way, no doubt ending up with a tyrant of some sort at the helm.

But the horror of unrestrained utter chaos would end at some point. And Iraqis would be the determiners of their own fate. What a concept

As long as we are there, it will never ever ever ever end. They will not allow infidels to rule their country. It won't happen. EVER

[katinmn]

20. When Britain ended its 100 year occupation of India

there was indeed a bloody civil war before stability.

But there is no way in hell that the Indians would want the Brits to come back!

[twenty4blackbirds]

14. please evacuate the Iraqis who want to leave.

*sigh* lambs to the slaughter... :-(

[dogday]

15. My Son would be able to freaking come home

now instead of November and that is not set in stone right now.....

[katinmn]

22. November! Hooray!

That's coming up soon. I pray that there are no more changes in plans. I remember when your son left for Iraq. What a long year it has been.

[clydefrand]

16. Complete this: If the U.S. completely withdrew from Iraq right now, _____

then what would Bush scare us with? Ohhhh, never mind, I'm sure he would find more WMD's, like in Iran, Tabago, Costa Rico, Columbia, whereever....

[mdmc]

18. Iraq would fall into civil war.

Which is why we should have never over thrown the bathe government. Cut and run - chum....p!

[Popol Vuh]

21. Iraq would

be free to work out their own destiny the same way Vietnam did after we finally left them alone.

Even France didn't try to impose themselves on us after our liberation from Great Britain.

[pscot]

23. The Shia would rapidly consolidate power

in the southern two thirds of the country and formalize their alliances with Iran and Syria. Then,the Shi'ite axis, with the aid of the Turks, would make a meal of the Kurds. Et voila, middle-east stability.

[ThatsMyBarack]

24. There'd be fireworks....

....and dancing in the streets outside my window! :woohoo:

[goodhue]

25. less people will die

[paulk]

26. sectarian violence would increase dramatically

Probably a million refugees flooding across the borders into surrounding countries. Humanitarian crisis.

The Kurds would probably set up their own government in the north. Actually, they pretty much already have. Neither Turkey or Iran will look on this favorably, leading to future conflict in that area.

In the south the radical fundy Shia will fight it out with the more secular types, with the radicals winning and setting up a theocracy.

In the Sunni Triangle and Baghdad.... who knows? Baghdad will become the Beruit of our times, with rival militias shooting it out in the streets. Lots of bloodshed.


The UN will be asked to step in - but where will they get the 300k troops needed to quell a full scale civil war?


It will be a mess.

[jazzjunkysue]

29. Not much would change in Iraq and our kids would be safe.

[Hemperor]

30. Civil War. No Doubt. nt

[Upfront]

31. Save

We would save lots of lives and money.

[theanarch]

32. there is no way to predict what might happen...

...for Americans, Iraq might look like Vietnam, but for Iraqis, it doesn't, nor should it; thus, using Vietnam as a model to divine Iraq's post-occupation future is completely inappropriate and irrelevant.