Quote:
Originally posted by onetime2
Pulling out would only reinforce the paper tiger belief of the US that terrorists have held for 30 years. It's time to put guns to terrorists' heads since the alternative is to allow them to continue putting their guns to ours.
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Ah, but what's the exit strategy?
If the USA had free and fair elections tomorrow, the Shiites, who are the numerical majority, would win. This would turn Iraq into a religious state like Iran, and would probably start a civil war with the Kurds.
So, the reality is that for all the posturing, the USA won't allow free and fair democratic elections in Iraq for a long time. I assume part of the posturing on the part of the Shiite clerics has been because they realize that the USA power handover is structured to keep them out of majority power.
I suspect that when Iraq does get to elections, that that will be structured in some complicated electoral way to allow power to be divided, perhaps by splitting each region into it's own "state". I don't know how the USA is going to prevent a Shiite president though.
So, onetime2, what do you see as the exit strategy that will leave a majority muslim country with a USA-friendly government?