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KYRA PHILLIPS: Michael Ware joining us from Baghdad.
Michael, in your piece, you point out this is ugly
but effective, and that's an interesting point.
Is there talk off the record that maybe U.S. troops
will leave or leave sooner and just let al Qaeda and
militias kill each other off?
MICHAEL WARE: Well, certainly that's one of the
alternatives that face the American military,
Congress, and the public. That's definitely a road
that can be gone down, particularly if the U.S.
withdrawal is rapid or precipitous. I mean, that will
signal, you know, in terms of the regional players
here, a defeat by America, and America's going to
have to wear that.
What they're going to leave behind is what you've
just been watching. You're going to see a
Lebanon-style situation with very powerful groupings
of militias all with external backers going toe to
toe.
Now, it's going to turn out that at the end of the
day, probably America itself will back many of these
Sunni militias. And if America doesn't, America's
Arab allies certainly are -- Saudi Arabia, Jordan and
Egypt. So, this might just be a glimpse of the future
-- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: It will be interesting to watch.
Michael Ware, thanks.