thanks, but:

"But assume we had left Iraq alone. What would change?"

Did you not read it?

Everything! we would have a credible and effective military option to threaten Iran with that wouldn't just leave them stronger and tougher and better positioned. We would have allies that could play active coordinated roles in carrot-and-stick talks.

And the Secularists woiuldn't be entirely discredited. With Mohammand Khatami popularily elected president since 1997 (not the same as being president in the US, but its something) they had been making gains, but with a Big Bad USA occupying Iraq for reasons that turned out to be patently false, looking like a imperialist power, nobody is going to be buying what the Secularists are selling anytime soon.

Everything we are doing in Iran, with the exception of what little favors we do the Kurds, plays right into Iranian hands. We have practically handed them the region, and within 5-6 years we'll see a nuclear power in the mideast with REAL terrorist ties and REAL ambitions to use a bomb on the US, with possible theocratic Satellite states and a ginormous failed state/terrorist breeding ground next door.

What more could the Mullahs have asked for? Us to GIVE them nukes and much more oil? Well, we practically have.

Davin L.