Reply #4: Well, that's almost possible.

[John Gauger]

It's true that Osama bin Laden wants to create a pan-Arab state with himself as Caliph, so he can control all of the oil wealth. I can only assume that that would be a totalitarian state. But nobody else is really interested in that. The major problem with that statement is that al Qaeda has almost no presence in Iraq and are just about universally hated. There is no way that al Qaeda will control Iraq after we leave. "Impose their will"? Yeah, if there's one thing that's true about Iraqis, it's that they'll peacefully tolerate meddling by a hated foreign power. No chance that al Qaeda might get blown up or killed execution style if they come to Iraq.