If the Iraqi's were ever to reach an accord amongst themselves,

[frogcycle]

establish a ceasefire, decide how to divvy up oil revenues, then the logical thing for them to do in their own self-interest would be to unite in a concerted effort to get us the hell out of there. We'd be in for a bloodbath. Think about it. They could say "ok, we'll divvy up the revenues as follows... now lets get those m-f's out of here, call in China to help us rebuild, and sell THEM our fucking oil. They could use that Dubai-based company - what was the name again? Halli-something? for a lot of the work. The "green zone" would no longer be a safe haven. ALL our troops would be sitting ducks.

[Dhalgren]

1. I think that is what al-Sadr has been aiming at for a couple of years.

He just can't control his militia very well and the violence against the Sh'ia (I still think that not all of the violence is Sunni based)makes it very hard to reach an accord with the Sunni insurgents.

[frogcycle]

2. so bottom line...

we "lost" this "war" before the first shot was fired. Every minute we stay is just throwing more virgins into the volcano. If there is chaos when we leave, we lose, and if there is not chaos, we lose. The ONLY winner is Big Oil, at the EXPENSE of the US. bushco just want to ikeep it unsettled (by keeping our people there) until haliburton says they are ready to handle it alone. then suddenly they'll say 'ok, never mind, we're outta here" and move to Dubai.

[majorjohn]

3. Bottom line: The huge mess in Iraq is all because of the US

Iraq's largest population are the Shia; they want to have most of the power especially since they were opressed for years under Saddam. Sunnis don't like that so they complain a lot, and they have people crossing the boarders to help fight for them, and the US helps them out because Saudi fears the Shia.