if democracy and civil liberties are no longer possible in iraq. the u.s. by pulling out now, will be indirectly responsible for several hundred thousand more iraqi deaths in the ensuing civil wars and partitions of iraq. after the rubble clears, iraq will more likely than not be under a control of a sadaam hussein II who built his power base on a pyramid of skulls and him and the general iraqi population will be actively hostile to the americans. not the passive crap that iran and n. korea are doing now with statements and declarations and little kidnappaing dramas, but active crap like officially recognizing al qaida and giving them their own turf and oil revenues since they were part of the solution in kicking out the americans. could you imagine and al qaida leader as education minister of iraq and what would be coming our way 20 years from now? as messed up as the situation currently is, i think the u.s. would prefer a saddam hussein II who is beholden to them as opposed to a sadaam hussein II whose politcal power is based on hatred and confrontation with the americans.