The Danger of Withdrawal from Iraq

News reports today have suggested that Senators Carl Levin (D - Michigan) and John Warner (R - Virginia) found that the surge is working. But these articles also highlight the danger from the ill-conceived premise of the Democratic Party that immediate withdrawal is necessary.

Consider the following quote from a story on FoxNews.com:

Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, an on-again, off-again supporter of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told a British newspaper on Monday that the Iraqi government is on the brink of collapse. "Al-Maliki's government will not survive because he has proven that he will not work with important elements of the Iraqi people," the cleric was quoted by The Independent as saying. "The prime minister is a tool for the Americans, and people see that clearly. It will probably be the Americans who decide to change him when they realize he has failed. We don't have a democracy here, we have a foreign occupation."

Al-sadr is the biggest obstacle to peace and Democracy in Iraq. His positioning of the government as a non-democratic, foreign puppet, government is a pre-text for a fundamentalist takeover by shia loyal to himself and supported by the Ayatollah's in Tehran.

Beware of all Democrats and Republicans (like erstwhile Presidential Candidate and Congressman Ron Paul) that advocate immediate withdrawal. Such a move empowers Iran, which a major state sponsor of terror and a sworn enemy of the U.S.