Welcome to DU, both of you! 3rdwaydem and KingNebuchadnezzar!

Glad you're both here! Seems like this was entirely predictable. As shitty as Saddam was, he kept things fairly stable in that area. And I always felt it was kinda nice that he would be there keeping the Iranians busy so they couldn't turn around, unencumbered, and hassle Israel or anyplace else. It was a policy of containment - letting Saddam do the dirty work. He kept everybody nervous and reacting - TO HIM. And as such, they were too busy reacting to him to turn outward and start stirring things up around them. He kept them preoccupied and well-menaced, and they all had their hands full and were looking over their shoulders most of the time. And it probably could have gone on that way - in a VERY uneasy "truce" of sorts, for awhile. But NO, we had to take out that "balancing" element. Now the Iranians can stir up anything they want, and there's no ruthless nutcase on Syria's east end to keep that bunch in line anymore. Radical operatives who might have felt suppressed and forced to lay low are now unrestrained, running amok, and that entire part of the world is destabilized and a mess, with more disruption growing by the minute. There's no iron fist keeping relative "calm" in Iraq any longer - it's all gone outta control and utterly berserk over there now. You pull away the cork stoppering the bubbling pressure underneath it, and BOOM!!!!!

Uhhh.... wait a minute... lemme think...

I remember now! Nice to meetcha! I'm Gimmie Freestuff! My husband was recently the governor of Virginia! And he's busy trying to flush all this legal hot water he's in - over onto me now. Thought we could get away with it but oh well... But hey, thanks for the free Rolex that I didn't have to buy him for Christmas, and the Ferrari was a nice ride, too, while it lasted. Free Market! Free Market!

I don't register anywhere either. So much the better.

And I'm leaving well enough alone!

Stay classy, ricky-boy.

Exquisite!!!

Just desserts. And they hadn't even gotten to the food service part yet, either!