Reply #77: Once we leave, the foreign fighters will leave as well -- the Iragis will force them out.

[scarletwoman]

Already, Sunni Imams have issued fatwas against cooperating with the foreign jihadists -- and the Sunnis are the only Iraqi faction that ever cooperated with the foreigners in the first place. The foreign jihadists are just as anti-Shia as they are anti-American, so no Shia faction is going to tolerate their presence in Iraq.

Once the U.S. withdraws, the foreign fighters (who represent at best about 1% of the hostile forces in Iraq) will be marginalized and eventually booted out by the Iraqis themselves whose sole interest will be the internal struggle for domestic political power.

Iraqis themselves just want control of their own country. The different factions will, of course, continue to battle each other for this control -- but it will have nothing to do with us.

There is no good reason for the U.S. to remain in Iraq. And if you count having control over Iraq's oil resources as a "good" reason, then you are just defending piracy.

sw