Not as selective and rare as you might think TIA, if you want to, go back and have a look at them. At the time I did not believe that war was inevitable. I was however, utterly amazed that Saddam and the Ba'athist Regime in power at the time thought that they could get away with the game they had played for the previous eleven years, in the post-911 world irrespective of what France, Russia and China were telling them.

Your predictions are interesting:

"US pulls out of Iraq now = carnage.

US stays in Iraq = ?"

Is that it? Does "?" signify I don't know? So I take it that you do not find yourself in accord with the other alarmists regarding "Civil War". You have in fact no opinion on the matter, but feel obliged to tell others who have why they are wrong. That's rather a strange basis for a rational discussion.

I note that "the usual suspects" are still ducking Guest Dickey's questions. My take on the one relating to the scenario had Saddam been left in place is as follows:

**If you knew what was going to happen when Saddam was toppled, tell us what would have happened if he was left in power.**

- UN sanctions against Iraq would have been lifted about four years ago at the prompting of Iraq's major trading partners (France, Russia and China). The US and UK veto may have theoretically kept sanctions in place but nobody would have enforced them, they were always pretty ineffective anyway as shown by the UN "Oil for Food" Scandal.

- The Iraqi response to Iran's nuclear programme would further destabilise the region with the massive likelyhood of a second Iran/Iraq War sometime within the next two years.

- All WMD programmes, including nuclear, would by now have been reactivated.

- Iran and Iraq for the last four years would have been competing for "Best Sponsor" title for terrorist groups targeting Israel, all to the detriment of any peaceful solution to the problem.

- Lebanon would still be a Syrian "Colony".

- The Iraqi people (Kurds and Arab Shia) would have continued to suffer under the Arab Sunni Ba'athist Regime.

- Most on this Forum would be castigating George W Bush and his Administration for not having done anything to prevent any of the above.