Beating a Hasty Retreat?

Those in favor of a withdrawal from Iraq should consider the regional and world consequences. Iraq without American forces will not withstand the radical Islamic forces (closely supported by Iran) that America has been fighting for the past five years. Within a year or two Iraq can be expected to fall under the control of Iran. Thus Iran would then control the oil of both countries. Its heightened power, probably magnified further by nuclear weapons, will give it control by threat of the other Arab oi-states. Within Obama's term of office the US and the West are likely to find that Iran and its Islamic jihadist proxies control the majority of the world's oil on the one hand and can threaten Europe with nuclear weapons on the other.

Further, Iran's goading of Israel and its arming of Hizbullah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza with massive amounts of missiles could explode into a regional war bringing in Syria, possibly Egypt, Israel, Iran, Iraq and it is possible that nuclear weapons would be employed. The ensuing conflagration may spill over into the Pakistan-India arena, also both armed with nuclear weapons and currently standing off at a tense truce. The above chaos, destruction, massive carnage, and international economic disruption would undoubtedly ignite violence in other countries with mass rioting by Moslems and possibly accompanied by 9/11 mass murders by El Qaeda mole cells in key European and American cities.

Let's consider that before we call for a hasty "redeployment" out of Iraq.

Eli Barhai of RI 12:22PM November 02, 2008