Reply #15: The same thing that will happen if we leave 2 years from now, 4 yrs or 8 [View All]

or 12 years from now, or...

Iraq has a bitter recent history of a Sunni minority oppressing a Shiite majority. But it also has a bitter ancient history of being the prime battleground between Sunni and Shiite, and Arab and Persian, that stretches back centuries. Fourteen centuries. The Muslim holy day of Ashurah commemorates the death in battle of Muhammed's grandson Husayn Ibn Ali in Kerbala in the year 680 by our calendar. That's Kerbala in Iraq--he was there fighting for what Shi'ites believe to be his rightful succession to the leadership of Islam. His force was outnumbered by the Ummayad chieftain Yazid who though related to Muhammed was not descended from him. Shia Islam essentially was born in Husayn Ibn Ali's death as the schism became permanent between those who accepted the caliphate of Abu Bakr- a line of succession from Muhammed that stands on discipleship (Abu Bakr was one of the Sahaba or companions of the Prophet) versus those who believe Muhammed intended his leadership to be inherited by the Prophet's son and descendants. In the 1500s, the Safavid Shahs of Persia conquered Iraq for Shi'ism and the Sunni Ottoman Turks later took it back again. In the 1600s there more exchanges.
What happens by way of score settling after we leave is what is bound to happen less because of what we've done, but because of what Saddam did, and well because...

Americans have to get over somehow this notion of being all-powerful and the cause or prevention of everything that happens in the world.