"Let a civil war rage and hope for the best? What would Baghdad be like then?"

We'll never know, will we? It's just speculation.

Besides, Saddam gone, a civil war could have been avoided.

And also, it wouldn't have been the US' responsability anymore.
Perhaps the UN would have been called and UN forces would be now in Iraq.

Okay, now we're just floating gently away over the trees like a runaway balloon. No connection to reality at all.

Speculation? At what level of cognition do we have to operate before rational alternatives can be discussed at all around here?

Dangerous to cross the street in heavy traffic? How can we prove that unless we do it? How do I KNOW drinking a quart of cyanide would kill me? I've never actually done it.

The idea that a widespread civil war in Iraq could possibly have been less costly in lives and property than the current actions approaches a height of implausibility I can't even wrap my brain around.

This kind of feigned "density" of thinking is really starting to piss me off. If Raoul was one of these Moveon.org imbeciles, I could just laugh it off, but he's demonstrated a lot of intelligence around here.