Reply #56: The same thing that will happen no matter when we leave.

[jazzjunkysue]

"I do believe if we just picked up and left, you'd have an incredibly bloody civil war, followed by a fundamentalist regime much like the Taliban."

Yup. We knew that before we went in. Bush decided to go in on 9/12 because someone hurt his feelings. Since the occupation is totally unjustified, it doesn't matter when we leave, because we never intended to leave. There is no job that will ever be finished. There will never be a moment when we'll think it's stable enough to leave. That's why I think Kerry let it go so quickly: He didn't want clean up duty.

Might as well leave and see who rises to power, and try to influence the true rulers when they emerge. We're out of soldiers, money and desire for war. I'm not willing to prop up the middle east indefinitely. We should reverse our oil dependence and stop the oil economy. Then, we'll have no reason to occupy them.