re: hypothetical universes and "alternate" histories
"Not sure how you could do too much worse than that."
Have a country which hates the US providing an easy link between Iran and Syria.
Have a revolutionary Shiite country bondering on Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
Have Kurds attempting to sucede from Turkey with government backing.
When does the Office of Special Plans scandal burst, and when do the hearings start on the burying of the State Deparment plan for rebuilding Iraq? And finally, when do our troops come home?
Perhaps none of this will happen, but I suppose it's like the Chinese say, may you be cursed to live in "interesting" times.
ep