Reply #76: But it's all about the religious differences.

[Xithras]

It's fundie vs. fundie, and while I'll agree that they're a minority in their countries, that minority is intent on widening it and sparking a civil war. How many high ranking Shia imams have been killed by Sunni fundi radicals now? How many more will it take before the Shia grow weary of dealing with the troublesome Sunni minority and undertake eradication measures? How many fundamentalist Sunni's are going to be willing to live happily in a nation that will undoubtably become a Shia-controlled Muslim state, when the Sunni's view Shia dogma as heresy? Iraq has no real history of tolerance outside of "we wont kill you if you don't rebel", so it's hard to see where that sudden surge of Iraqi brotherhood and loving udnerstanding is supposed to come from.

I don't know that we would see the full scale civil war that Bush parrots on about, but at the minimum we'd see Iraq devolve into a North Ireland style conflict where the nations peace is regularly interrupted by civilian killings and car bombs, and at the worst a Somali style breakdown where the country effectily seperates into regional or tribal governments run by warlords and wanna-be monarchs and religious leaders.