Ron, Oh, Ron, you are an absolute star

"The difference between Sunni and Shiite." - Well Ron you sure as hell don't know the difference, Ever worked out there Ron??? I have on a number of occasions

"Tens of thousands of Iraqis rallied against a proposal to keep US troops in Iraq after the UN mandate expires." - This signifies what exactly Ron - Don't struggle, I'll tell you - The Square Root of fuck-all.

"These protesters appear to be followers of al-Sadr. So tell me, how many are al-Qaeda?" - Wow!!! imagine that, staggers back in amazement - Eh Ron as followers of al-Sadr the Iraqi Government is not for one second going to pay the slightest attention to them - irrelevant.

"Face it--if "kudos" are to be shared for driving the US "prematurely" from Iraq, al-Qaeda, which is nominally Sunni, will have to share them with this group--which is Shiite." - Doesn't matter if it is shared Ron, or are you too dim to see that. I'll go over the basics again 1 to 1.8 billion muslims in the world, 85% are Sunni, 15% are Shiia, your premature withdrawal of US troops indicates that the "muslim lads" in Iraq have kicked US Ass big time, my take on that Ron old son is that out of 100 muslims round the wolrd 85 are going to give credit for that to Al-Qaeda and 15 are going to give it to al-Sadr and Iran. If in the ensuing civil war those numbers prove correct in terms of support then the Shiites lose - law of diminishing returns.

"And as for your theory that because the majority of Islam is Sunni, they will make common cause with al-Qaeda: how popular is al-Qaeda with the Saudi regime? With the Egyptian regime? Etc." - The Saudi's said that they would support the Sunni's didn't they? They won't give a damn whose fighting alongside them Iran is their enemy.

"Sounds like you still need to make that trip to your local library. After researching how propaganda works, you can study up on Islam." - Well Ron you sure as hell need to take your own advice, but instead of reading MSM try with a bit of original source material, take someone along that explain it to you andtake it from there.

"The situation in Iraq is not just a rivalry between Sunni and Shiite--perhaps you're unaware. In fact al-Qaeda has been relegated to the status of a bit player. Why? Because of the way they treat their fellow Moslems, trying to enforce their brand of Islamic Puritanism, as I said earlier. Do you need graphic examples?" - Well no Ron, go back to some of my earlier posts where I stated exactly what the Sunni Arabs in Iraq had to do to get onboard the political process - They have done just that. But if the US forces leave prematurely, it will revert to a Sunni Arab v Shiia Arab civil war, Al-Qaeda will come in on the Sunni side and the Iranians may or may not side with the Shiia, they'll have a hard time standing clear, but there is grave internal danger for them getting too involved.

"they (Al-Qaeda) are hated throughout the Islamic world" - hey Ron if they get you guys to scramble back to the god ol' USofA, they will be able to dine out on that until eternity.

"Therefore there is no reason for US combat troops to remain--as potential targets--in "rump Iraq"." - So I see that you have, quite sensibly abondoned your "Kurdistan" Garrison then General Davies, I am pleased about, it's the only shred of commonsense that you have shown in the whole discussion.

I'd still like to hear what your take is on the effects of "Get 'em out NOW" policy back home in the good ol' USofA. My take on the effects are that they would be profound and earth-shattering in terms of everything that you have come to depend upon.