Reply #6: I think it will be blame, not credit, and it will go to the Democrats, alas.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

Iraq is going to explode when the American troops leave, and the longer they remain the worse it will be. It's bad now, it's getting worse slowly, and it will get worse rapidly once the Americans leave.

It's kind of like having your thumb in the hole in a barrel that's slowly being pumped fuller and fuller of water - you're getting wet and cold from the leak, when you pull it out the barrel will explode and you'll get drenched, and the longer you leave it in the bigger the burst will be.

I think that if and when (probably when) the Americans do pull out, most of the electorate will blame the party who decided to pull their finger out, not the one who jammed it in and broke the barrel in the first place, alas.