Anyone care to make a prediction concerning Iraq?

[Dirty Hippie]

Now that * has gotten us into this mess how is it going to play out? Assuming the US deaths continue, which seems likely, it seems the neocons have very few options. They must realize that if they fail to mop this thing up by election time their boy is in trouble.

1. Will they eventually ask the UN to come in?

2. Will they continue stick to the current strategy (if you can call it a strategy) until the election and perpetuate this guerrilla war?

3. Will they eventually pull back and leave the Iraqis to deal with it - a la Afghanistan?

It seems to me choices 1 and 3 would require giving up the oil but choice 2 risks the election.

So... what are they going to do?

[Dont B bush N Me]

1. Saddam will be assassinated like his sons were because

they know too much about Ronnie Reagan and Daddy Bush. Afterwards the U.N. will be called in to help the U.S. bring order to Iraq. Bush jr will go to Iraq as conquering King and will be met by a terrorists nuklar bomb.

[DuctapeFatwa]

2. bush regime henchmen will make a bundle of money

The oil facilities will be secured, the rest of Iraq will deteriorate into Rwanda, those who don't die from radiation sickness. There will be some mewling in the US about the disposable soldiers who die from what the regime will insist is not radiation sickness, and the regime will cite its success in Iraq as the model for seizing the oil in Saudi Occupied Arabia. They will "accidentally" bomb something they shouldn't there and the bush regime, including the rubber stamp congress, will direct the remainder of the crusade from a secure undisclosed location, soundproofed against the cluck-cluck-BOOM of homing chickens.

[punpirate]

3. My take on it is...

... that they will delay any real involvement by the UN (official peacekeeping, government restructuring leading to a new government) until they have American businesses so deeply woven into the commercial fabric of the country that they can't be extricated. That works in two ways for them.

One, it enables the continuation of armed US forces in the country, which is a political advantage for them, and two, once those corporations are installed, it then provides a source of income which then will require any future president to defend--if for example, years from now, a revolutionary government in Iraq nationalizes the oil fields, an American president might have no choice but to send in troops again or engage in covert ops to "protect American interests." Those American interests might well be precisely the ones usurped in this current invasion. So, the corporations would be protected, into the future, by getting them well-entrenched now.

After all, the real reason for the Afghan war was to enable a contract for the pipeline to be built. This has finally been done. Future presidents will have no choice but to protect it.

It's all about getting a foot in the door, and keeping it there long enough to break down resistance.

To my mind, these are all things which would have been done, one way or another, if Clinton had not prevented Bush I from getting a second term.

Cheers.

[ClintonTyree]

4. Bush's ( and the rest of the neocons)...........

pride and greed will prevent them from asking the U.N. to intervene. That would give the distribution of all of that oil to someone that would actually use it to help the people of Iraq. We'll be stuck in this quagmire for at least 5 years, Bush doesn't stand a chance in 2004, and then a Democrat will be expected to straighten out this (and every other) mess that Bush has gotten us into. Soldiers will continue to die, the economy will continue to faulter, the environment will continue to suffer and the rich will get richer until that joyous day in 2005 when a newly elected Democratic President and Democrat controlled Senate will steer this country on a path of benevolence. THAT is my vision.

[izzie]

5. Be come a shinning city on the hill

n/t

[OldSoldier]

6. Islamic theocracy within a year

I used to say "the year" but let's give 'em until August 1, 2004.

By that time, we'll have a fully-functioning Islamic theocracy complete with muttaya in place in Iraq. Bush will kick and scream, but since he's trying to install a theocracy in this country, he really doesn't have a leg to stand on.

An Islamic theocracy in Iraq can get arms and ammunition from most of the other Islamic theocracies already in place, except maybe Kuwait which doesn't have much of an army. With this they'll run Bush's monkey ass out of the Middle East.

[Friar]

7. good question

If BushCo gets four more years, then it's occupation time. Dean may ask for UN assistance if he wins.

Then there's the larger issue of the effect of neocon PNAC US hegemony policies on our traditional allies. Makes my head spin... :silly: