The growing rhetoric of the few people who still support this travesty in Iraq is, "What happens after we pull out?" The first response is to say, "Well you should have thought about that before you stuck that thing in there!" But what is done is done. Leaving the troops in there isn’t going to stop the pragmatic result. (yah I know it is a stretch of the use of the word "pragmatic" but it sounded so close to "pregnant" that the artist in me couldn’t resist.) The outcome of the past 5 years is a freight train in motion. It is not going to stop on a dime.
As the US pulls the troops out of Iraq, it is widely accepted it will swell with violence and crumble into complete civil war. How that Civil war will pan out is not as easily predicted as one might think. Turning your attention to the picture included on the post (taken from Time march of ‘07 ) and note that there are a few important issues. People like to think of Iraq as having a "Shi’ite majority". This may be true per capita. But the Sunni majority is overwhelming in the around the entire Middle East.
So the Sunnis with help from Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Turkey could overwhelm the country and retake control for their cause. However, Iran and it’s aggressive foreign policy and a pretty sturdy and rugged history of surviving as the little guy in the neighborhood. So you can’t count them out.
Two things that seems certain is that there will be a blood bath. It is quite possible that the place will become divided into three nation states. That is a popular prediction right now. The Kurds in the North The Sunnis in the west and the Shi’ite in the east. The second thing is that the US military can not now, and never really could, change Iraq. There is a story I once heard about a child who had a sick pet chicken. He asked his dad to help him fix his chicken. His dad was a butcher by occupation. His father helped the only way he could. The chicken's death was quick and she never saw it coming. The US doesn't have the knowledge or capabilities to fix Iraq.
After the pullout will feel the same as waking up the morning after a night of heavy drinking. We will feel drained and confused. We will feel hungry but too afraid to eat. We will drink but nothing will cure our thirst. Our wallet will be empty, however we won’t quite understand where the money went. Oh the headache, pounding and clouding your judgment. Your friends and acquaintance alike will have a new lowered level of respect for you for those acts you did while intoxicated.
The only thing that The US can do once it pulls out is stand wand watch. What the US could do is spend the next $500 billion on a zero tolerance for illegal occupants in the country. The pilots of 9/11 were here on expired visas. We can hire more intelligence agents. The money could be better spent in Afghanistan chasing Bin Ladden. Ah remember that speech about not resting until the perpetrators of 9/11 have been brought to justice. How about spending $500 billion on promoting alternative fuel research. This is the only military action in history where so many of the US citizens financed the efforts of the named enemy. Sure George’s great grandfather financed the Nazis, accidentally of course. I am starting to notice a trend here. We don’t need to do it with our gas purchases. $500 billion could be used to a lot better then kicking up sand trying to be a judge at the Salem witch trials in Iraq. Everybody in Iraq has enemies. Everybody's enemy is a terrorist.
The next thing congress should do is start asking, who is responsible. A comprehensive discussion about who caused this. Was it the result of malice or incompetence? Then a persecution and prosecution of those responsible.
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