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[Adventurer]

Civil war would engulf entire Mideast if US departs Iraq: Baker Sun Oct 8, 3:03 PM ET



WASHINGTON (AFP) - An immediate pullout of US troops would unleash an civil war that could engulf the entire Middle East, former senior US statesman James Baker warned.

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"I think that if we picked up and left right now that you would see the biggest civil war you've ever seen," Baker told ABC television on Sunday.

"Every neighboring country would be involved in there, doing its own thing, Turkey, Iran, Syria, you name it, and even our friends in the Gulf," he said.

He also rejected a plan by a top US lawmaker, Democratic Senator Joe Biden, which would carve the country into three autonomous regions: Sunni, Shiite and Kurd.

"If we do that, that in itself will trigger a huge civil war because the major cities in Iraq are mixed," said Baker, a former secretary of state under US President George Herbert Walker Bush.

"There's no way to draw lines between Sunnis, Shia and Kurds in the major cities of Baghdad, Basra, Mosul, Kirkuk. And furthermore, there are no boundaries between the Sunni areas and the Shiite areas in Iraq," said Baker, who, during his decades-long career also served as secretary of the US Treasury, White House chief of staff, manager of three presidential campaigns.

"The minute you say you're going to do that and make three autonomous regions, you're likely you're likely to kick off a big civil war," said Baker.

Baker currently serves as chairman of the US-Congress-mandated Iraq Survey Group, tasked with plotting the way forward toward building civil society in the war-torn country.

"What we're going to come up, hopefully, with some recommendations that the Congress and the president and the country can look at. We're going to make it public the day we present it to the president," he said, adding that it's "possible" that the commission could complete its work by December or early January


[Mr. Baker I may agree with you, but if you didn't push for G.W. Bush to be president the troops wouldn't be there. This is a war that I knew was going to turn out this way. I was in the minority at the time, but I knew what to expect down there. But I don't think quickly withdrawing without
major Sunni and Shiite tribal leaders in agreement might be a big mess and cause the Turks, Iranians and others to get involved as Baker said.

[ddeubel]

In essence....

IT MAY BE A MESS BUT IT IS OUR MESS

Not any thought about cleaning things up, only protecting OUR MESS.

These guys are morons.

DD

[Kuros]

[thebum]

but the mideast is several countries, so it wouldn't really be "a civil war".

[EFLtrainer]

There is a very simple solution, which I proposed long ago: Regional "U.N."-ified peacekeepers. US pulls out, a military group made up of ME nations and perhaps other non-aligned nations goes in.

The US pull-out would cut off any claim Al Queda-connected groups would have to hostilities. The peacekeeprs get between the Shiites and Sunnies... Game over.

Ah, but this is fart too rational for this crazy world.

Actually, the problem is, the US went in to get control of the region and the oil. Back in '03 I thought this could be part of the reason, but didn't actually believe it was THE reason. But when you start doing the research into who controlled what and what happened along the way...

Which is why the conflict with Iran is so important: they control the flow of oil through the Gulf. Plan Bers can't allow that to stand with oil running out.

Oh, and if you don't believe Peak Oil is here, just take a gander at a current oil company ad - didn't catch which one - that actually refers to it!! After hiding it for so long, now they're publicly talking about it?? Folks.... hold on tight...

All fall down and go BOOM!