What is the worst that could happen if we withdrew from Iraq?

Question

Best answer will be decided not by me but from thumbs up and down.

Answer 1

They would fight a bloody civil war for years. But thats happening already, so no big loss :P

Answer 2

Sectarian violence, which we are seeing now, turns into all out civil war. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis die and millions are displaced as the different ethnic groups fight for power. Look at what happened in Afghanistan in the 1990's and that would be Iraq if we completely left. Eventually, Iraq will end up with another totalitarian dictator, like Saddam Hussein, or a Islamic theocracy, like the Taliban or Iran. Both options are equally bad and undesirable.

Answer 3

It would be about like our withdrawal from Vietnam. All the worse case scenarios would not happen, there would be no domino effect and Iraq would be nominated for the UN Security Council 30 some years later just as Vietnam has been.

Answer 4

We pull out without some sort of stable government in place, Al Qaeda triumphs over common, decent Iraqis, imposes a Sharia based government, uses the tons of military equipment we will either leave behind or will have given to the Iraq government, makes that hell hole a recruiting and training ground for terrorists.

Then we really have to attack them again.

Answer 5

Remember Yugoslavia, Bosnia,Croatia, 250,000 dead, death squads on all sides, mass graves, okay now that you have that picture, throw in some sand and double the number and then when they have finished killing enough of each other with the constant help of al Quada, Iran sweeps in to pick at the bones. Thankfully this is a fantasy scenario and Iraq will have the same chance that we did over 200 years ago.

Answer 6

Iraq being partitioned in three in idependent countries of which the south will soon after will united with Iran

Answer 7

If this happens then someone is gonna take over and it wont be pretty. Most likely a bunch of thugs. And after they take control there will be "purges" and this means they will "deal with" every single person they think might cause them problems in the future. These guys don't play by the same rules as we do. After we beat Germany and Japan in WW2 we sent everybody we thought would cause us a problem to the Russians and they dealt with them for us.

Answer 8

Well, immediate withdrawal from Iraq could be potentially devastating, considering they are in a state of civil unrest, and pulling out now would cause great harm because nobody could mediate between the two Muslim groups. However, it is most likely necessary that a gradual withdrawal is in the future, because more troops are being killed than we are saving people, and plus, we need more protection in the US as of now, with all these natural disasters and whatnot. Hope that answers your question :)

Answer 9

i had the same question, but than i thought we would be bomed my the friggin muslims and all them out there in phsycoland, haha.
and the USA is the stongest army in the world, why be number 2,3,4......when we are number one already? if we withdrew, that would be our fault, not only iraq, but other countrys would say were weak, theres a chance that we could be ganged up on, bombed with a neuclear bomb, anything could happen you know.
i have a cousin that went, hes back and alive, its a rick, but look at all the people fighting.............fighting for their country!
they wouldnt do that if they wanted to get exploded, while driving on the road!

Answer 10

Millions of Iraqi citizens die. Iran takes over the running of the government and sets up a government that is wholly hostile to the west, women and non-conformity.

And Bush gets to say "I told you so."

Be fair, however. You need to ask what the worse that could happen if we DON'T withdraw from Iraq...

Instead of those same millions dying in a few months, we get thousands of people dying each year until we eventually do leave and THEN the slaughter happens anyways. In the process we completely exhaust our military, end up imposing the draft, lose our economic strength and all credibility in the world.

Presumably the "worst that can happen" scenarios aren't the likely scenarios, but you're certainly better off using them then Bush's optimistic view of ignoring everyone who disagrees with him.

Answer 11

Ultimately the radical Islamists would purchase small nuclear bombs and take it to the USA.
Isreal would be destroyed by the Palestinians and a larger middle east alliance.
Moderates everywhere and US supporters in Saudi Arabia would be removed, or at least their opinions would be completely nullified, and ruling Saudis overthrown.