From: (Michael Petukhov)


Nice war - here's the billsnip

Or, with the upcomming war against North Korea, we can just explain to the
Iraqis that they've become just too much of a drain on our resources, pull all
our forces out, and leave them to their own devices to sort out their problems.
Of course, that means civil war. This is one of the dangers faced by Iraq that
the Iraqis themselves may not be considering. The time to sort out their
problems is very short.

They really need to start hustling and cooperating with US forces to root out
Saddam and whoever else is conductiing guerilla operations against the
occupation before the tax paying population of the US decides it is just
"casting it's pearls before swine" in Iraq: i.e., that the reconstruction
efforts, and its costs, do not have any proportional payback in additional
security to the US in terms of 1) reduction of a terrorist threat to the US, or
2) of securing a realiable oil supplier.

Does anyone actually believe that the Arab world will NOT take this opportunity
to miss an opportunity? My guess: Iraq will have another dictator within 7-8
years......but at least this one won't antagonize the US.
Dave