[Tim]

The Civil War started when the South attacked the North. There is no other reason.

As far as this theory about stablizing the ME. Lets look at the countries you mentioned. Jordan is ruled by a King as is Kuwait which is closely tied to the Saudis. The people have no right to vote, no say in the government, are subject to harsh laws and seeth with anger at the USA for supporting these regimes. In Kuwait they still behead people in the same manner as the terrorists we are fighting. Why would we want to support these places? It is niave to think that what is going on in Iraq is going to change this as long as these dictatorships have our blessing.

Turkey, a NATO ally, refused to get involved with the war in Iraq, even refusing to let the USA to launch an invasion from there. And just his week they stoped all truck traffic in and out of Iraq because of fears of terrorists attacks. Attacks they did not have to worry about when Saddam was running things. Turkey never supported what the USA did in Iraq and never will.

If the goal was the establishment of a free and democratic state, as you suggest then Iraq has been a dismal failure. If there were not 120,000+ USA troops there, the place would disolve into complete chaos. Sorry but the Civil War was never like this.