Leaving a Hornet's Nest

Those that are against the war in Iraq are quick to point out all the sacrifice we have made and bemoan the sacrifice we still would need to make in order to win. For the most part, their agenda is to point out that it isn't worth it. What the forces of withdrawal never talk about is what would happen to Iraq, the Middle East and the world if we left before victory is attained. Let's look at those possibilities to understand how vital victory is.

The Kurds in the North would wind up battling the Turks in a war for cessation of their own Kurdish population. Al Qaeda would annex Anbar or Dihyala or wherever they were at the time and turn that into their new Tora Bora. Iran would use Sadr as a proxy to gain even more influence in the region. Syria would continue to send in fighters to create havoc, chaos and destruction. Sunni countries like Saudi Arabia would be forced to step in and protect their brethren and what would most likely ensue would be some sort of a regional Sunni/Shia civil war. Hezbollah and Hamas would use the power vacuum to further their own chaos in each of their own spheres of influence, and an increasingly strong Iran would be backing both. At some point, Israel would be forced into war with one or more likely both of these groups.

The violence would get worse, much worse. Al Qaeda would not only get more vicious but they would use the internet to make their violence look even worse. God help us all if they ever got a hold of any of the current leaders of Iraq because they would not only behead them but do it live on the internet. The whole region would be enflamed. Al Qaeda, Syria, and most of all Iran would be the big winners.

To this, most liberals respond with things like this is a worst case scenario. One person actually said something that makes sense. They said no one knows the future. That is true.
No one does know the future, but what is going on in Iraq is exactly what the phrase "hornet's nest" is used to describe. The forces of evil in and around Iraq are plentiful and they all have their own agenda and none of their agendas are good for Iraq, the Middle East, the US, or the world.

Yet, despite the hornet's nest that we would be leaving, most Democrats think that a precipitous withdrawal is the right way to go. The Democrats think that leaving Iraq to deal with the forces of Sadr, Al Qaeda, Syria, Turkey, and a growing Sunni/Shia Civil War is just fine. They see no problem whatsoever with the ultimate outcome of whatever happens when we leave and the forces of evil get free reign.

They are apparently totally oblivious that leaving a hornet's nest is bad no matter what the outcome. There's is the snake oil salesman's pitch. They know we all hate the violence and destruction and we all want our troops out of the fight. They tell us all will be all right completely ignoring the hornet's nest surrounding Iraq right now.

The snake oil salesman does what any good salesman will do. They tell the public what it wants to hear. They are the party to get us out of Iraq because the public in general wants to be out of Iraq. They worry not about what will happen to the hornet's nest we leave because the public doesn't care.

That is where we need to turn the debate if we have any hope of seeing this thing through in Iraq to victory. The debate must turn from staying or leaving, to the consequences of leaving. Leaving Iraq to the hornet's nest that surrounds is not good, in fact, it is horrible. Leaving Iraq precipitously will lead to unthinkable evil, even if none of us know exactly what for it will bring, but if we are to win this debate, it is time for the Democrats to account for the hornet's nest they want to leave in Iraq.