If a Major Civil War broke out between Sunnis & Shiites in Iraq if the US left how exactly would that be......

Question

bad for the US? During the last Sunni (Saddam) & Shiite (Iran) "civil war" aka: the Iran-Iraq war, in which millions were killed over a decade of fighting, the West basically sat back & watched. No Al Qaeda terrorists took over Iran or Iraq & once the war ended things in the Middle East went back to normal. So why all the fuss about the US leaving Iraq & handing it over to the democratically elected majority Iraqi Shiites? The Iraqi Shiites would wipe out the insurgents/terrorists (w/o any US deaths) & the Shiite govt. would take over Iraq and be forever grateful to the US for getting rid of Saddam/Sunnis. Problems solved.

1) I do believe that there is a "low level" civil war going on in Iraq right now but not the Major one we would see if the US left.

2) The Iraqi Shiites Fought Against the Iranian Shiites during the Iran-Iraq war & remember Iraqi Shiites are Arabs & Iranian Shiites are Persians so don't be so quick to say that their would be an alliance between an Iraqi Shiites controled Iraq & an Iran.

3) Shiite Muslims have absolutely nothing to do with Al Qaeda. In fact they hate the Sunni Al Qaeda because Al Qaeda hates Shiites. So if the Iraqi Shiites eliminate the Iraqi insurgents/terrorists & take full control Iraq (and become friendly with the Iranians) that doesn't mean that terrorist would gain control of Iraq. In fact, the Iraqi Shiites & Iranian Shiites would make sure that any Sunni Al Qaeda member would be shot on sight if found in the new Shiites Iraq.

So I ask again what would be so bad if the US left Iraq and let the Democratically elected Iraqi Shiites win the war?

Answer 1

We started this, we have to bring it to an end. After we leave, then whatever happens... happens. The US achieved the vacuum of power that would now exist if we were to cut and run. Things are bad there now, but they are nothing like what would happen were we to immediately remove our troops. Forget the fighters......... every man with his heart must remember all the innocent victims that would loose their life without our presence there.

Answer 2

few facts for the unknown
-the 1980-1988 Iraq-Iran war was NOT a Sunni-Shiite war, if it were then the 65% Shiite population of Iraq would not have fought in the first place
-The west did not sit and watch, the west did contribute behind the curtains for sure, sell weapons to kill each other so that the winner would just be as weak as possible.
-Al-Qaeda did not take control in Iran. the US allowed the insurgents to make Iraq as the fighting grounds for them. Al-Qaeda never existed in Iraq until after the US invasion.

A democratically elected government wiping the Sunnis (about 30%) of Iraqis ?! isn't that why US invaded Iraq for in the first place, because Saddam tried to do that kind of act against the people? some double standards for sure.

These are people you're talking about not toys to wipe/unwipe.
Again, why did the US come to Iraq once more really?...

Answer 3

there is a civil war there and it has been going on at least for 2 and a half years, but of course the control that the white house exerts over what is acceptable and not acceptable on what is told and not told would never allow the admission of that but from the papers worldwide ect we know that the conditions have not improved only become steadily worse, the iraqi people will not allow any government backed by the USA to stand in Iraq and to see the truth of this all you have to do is read the papers on the many many that want the USA out of Iraq and no it does not come from the terrorist but the normal people there they are the ones that are paying the price every day for the atrocities committed there by both sides. We do not have the right to impose our wills on everyone else to gain cheap oil. The price is to high not just in lives but in morals that we give up we become a nation not under God but a nation opposed to God. That is a fact that history seems to bear out no nation that invades another on falsehoods has ever stood. Course we will always have the sheep that are easily controlled by the government and never question anything just say it is the patriotic way and always stay the course. We support our troops but it will not do much good there as they are controlled by the ones that never have seen a battlefield just cause daddy could not afford to lose any of them they are to precious better some poor man's sons or daughters pay the price after all they are only sheep and we are the ones that control the thoughts of america. If we left now from Iraq it would be a far better thing for the Iraq people than our presence there we do not do any good except to recruit more terrorist to the region and place more targets on our troops. We declared war on an enemy that we can not beat because everything we try to do good or bad there just makes more terrorist. If we leave we will accomplish more from the sidelines than being in the cross hairs.

Answer 4

Nice dream, but it will not withstand the awakening.

First, we didn't stay out of the 1980s Iran-Iraq war. We armed Saddam with everything we could, gave him all the support we could short of sending troops.

Second, what made that conflict a non-issue was that Iran and Iraq were fairly well-balanced against each other. It was unlikely that either side could make major gains, let alone overrun the other country. And that is exactly how it played out.

Third, you are kidding yourself if you think a Shiite victory would mean that the democratically-elected government would stay in power. If the Shiites won, they would probably set up a Iran-like religious oligarchy, with the clerics running the show. What makes the coalition goverment work is the balance of power among the coalition members, Kurds, Shiites, and Sunnis. Give the Shiites supremacy, and they'll use it for sure.

Answer 5

I doubt it would work out that way because I think the foreign (ie non-Iraqi) Al Qaeda members would probably leave to carry on other operations, probably against the US or the west. Al Qaeda has never been a group to wholeheartenedly participate in the Sunni vs Shia conflict. They have always been concerned more with the West and the US. Many Al Qaeda members are actually neither sunni or shia, they are wahabi's which is a much smaller muslim sect that really doesn't have a theological or political beef with either the Sunnis or Shia. Al Qaeda sided with the Sunnis in Iraq in order to drum up more conflict since they clearly believe that hurting the US by continuing civil war in Iraq is more important than killing fellow muslims.

Answer 6

OK this is how it is, Iraq is made up predominately of 3 groups, Kurds, Sunnis, and Shiites. Problem is if we leave them to themselves the majority of the population that is shia would probably kill most Sunnis and push them to the west where most already are Sunni in the country which could dissolve Iraq into either 3 separate countries or have the east of Iraq combine with Iran which is a enemy of the U.S. the west join with Syria also a enemy of the U.S. and the Kurds in the north create their own country which would cause a invasion of tTurkey due to the fact most of their eastern parts are a large part Kurd, so they would want to prevent the Kurds rebelling and joining the would be oil rich country of Kurdistan that would form from the 3 way split of Iraq. So the result could be a bigger Syria, a bigger Iran with even more oil that would border Kuwait where a large American base is located, and a forming of a new country of Kurds and invasion of that country by Turkey and hence no more Iraq.

Answer 7

You've really summed up a conclusion that I don't think any American would have a problem with.
I know I wouldn't.

Unfortunately, we are dealing with a real powder keg in the Middle East and it could get real nasty, real quick - Iran will most certainly back the Shiites - while Syria will most certainly back the Sunnis - and, now we have not one, but three countries actively involved. The Kurds will be toast and Afghanistan will be chaos. If all of this implosion in the Middle east doesn't sound scary - consider the very real possibility of nuclear weapons and the even greater possibility of this infighting spilling into Israel.

Better we just see if we can't bring a little stability into the region with the installation of a freely elected government.

Note: I like your reference to "once the war ended, things in the Middle East were back to normal."

Normal? Direct quote from Al Qaeda relating to Islam:

"If America will not convert on its own, we will eventually become strong enough to topple the government and convert America and her people by force."

And from Osama Bin Laden referring to America:

"The operations are under preparation and you will see them in your houses as soon as they are complete."

If we pull out now, can we really live with "normal?"

Answer 8

What US Government has done in the past by invading various countries on one pretext or the other trying to 'impose' their 'brand of democracy', never succeeded...nor will it ever. You do not invade blindly because some one or some group in the administration have larger than life dreams about the 'New World Order'.

What makes you think the US had done a favour to first invade, set up a puppet government (like in Afghanistan), stir up and foment chaos, create mayhem, have thousands killed (for absolutely no reason) then 'hand over' power and withdraw, claiming their job is done.

This is not the first time nor will it be the last, that in the name of democracy and security (not the real motive) that countries will be invaded and finally left to solve the newly created chaos.

All that happened here was more terrorists were lured into committing atrocities, more innocent lives were wasted, and the moderates had no choice but to sympathize or even support the extremists. The 'far right is far wrong'....What a shameful disservice to this Great Nation.

Answer 9

In this case, Iran would support the Iraqi Shia & the result would be a huge increase in Iran's power in the region. That would not be good for us.

Answer 10

I thought there was a civil war going on in Iraq. Ohhh not by US standards, right?