What, exactly, are the Iraqi insurgents expected to do after the US pulls out?

All one needs to do is read what happened in Vietnam after we left.

It makes no difference when we leave, the result will be the same. That's one reason we should bring our troops home now. They are doing no good at all, they are in harms way every second of every day in their brave attempt to follow the latest "orders" spewing from Washington.

We have turned Iraq into a breeding ground for terrorists, we have destroyed what infrastructure they had (which wasn't much to begin with), killed tens of thousands of their citizens, destroyed their main source of income (mainly the oilfields) and caused a civil war that will rage for years causing more death and more destruction.

The insurgents will continue to do what they do, bomb, kill, maim, gas....until someday, another dictator like Saddam will have enough men to take control through terror and murder and once again, the people of Iraq will be a third world country led by a cruel dictator.

Actually if you look at the facts they are only killing a small number of troops a month in relative comparison to the over all casualties totaled. the vast majority of deaths are Civilian because that's who the Insurgents are targeting.

The insurgents won't stop once the US is gone. they want to eliminate the Iraqi government and install their own.

you are also talking about centuries of religious hatred between a few factions. That's not going to stop when the US leaves either.

The situation is far from simple as you seem to be claiming. In fact I think once the US leaves the situation will get dramatically worse. The Kurds in the north will no longer have US Protection, and yes they WANT our help and even call our boys who have died Martyrs for Kurdish freedom.

and Iran will make moves to overthrow Iraq.

You don't believe me? crack open a history book and look at the Iraq Iran war... look at the British occupation/colonization of Iraq. there is a long history of Iran making moves to acquire Iraq and that's not going to change with a military withdrawal.

The Iraqi insurgents are mostly blowing up Iraqi civilians and not our troops.

Leaving before the Iraqi Government can fend for themselves will only allow the Iraqi insurgents to overpower them.

Setting timetables for withdrawal does give the enemy a "goal" of laying low till we pull out.

Saying we will fight till the Iraqi Government can fend for themselves does keep the Iraqi insurgents in place until either the Iraqi Government can fend for themselves or America looses it's resolve to fight.

Just like the thousands of deaths at the hands of brutal murders daily in the U.S.A it is handled not by a foreign entity but by our own police. That is what we are trying to establish in Iraq.

To leave before Iraq can handle it's own security is only leaving Iraq in the hands of brutal murders without the ability to defend itself.

If we did that we would only have to return at a later date to help resolve the eventual genocide.

Or we could ignore it and let Iran take over Iraq and then whatever other country it feels like taking over since we will show that the U.S.A is truly just a "paper tiger".

Actually, your "facts" that you're stating in your additional info are not correct. Their main hobby is not killing US troops. The majority of the killing going on over there is Sunis killing Shiites and Shiites killing Sunis.

Were we to exit Iraq now, it would be a free-for-all struggle for power and probably genocide would occur. For us to pull out of Iraq now would be essentially giving certain genocide our nod of approval.

We need to help the Iraqis establish order so that everyone - Suni, Shiite, Kurd, and anyone else, has certain inalienable rights that will be protected by a United Iraqi government.

Sunis may blow up Shiites and visa versa but that is their business. At least they would not blow up Americans because there would be no Americans to blow up. But you are absolutely right. They see us as infidels trodding on their sacred land and are doing what any people would do repel the invader. Once Americans are gone they will settle the matter among themselves as they have for thousands of years. So a time table can be made but not broadcast to the world. The insurgents need not know what we're up to but our allies and ourselves would, of course, know.

You have based your conclusions on false premises - their main target is not U.S. troops - their main target is the Iraqi people themselves who refuse to buy into their demented ideology. It's the people who risked their lives to vote for a government that would answer to them instead of the other way around. The terrorists are not fighting against an invasion - they are fighting to prevent the Iraqi people from forming a government other than Islamic Sharia law. They are in fact fighting AGAINST freedom.

As far as what we expect them to do if they are victorious, they have made their objectives perfectly clear in statement after statement explaining their objectives. A condensed version is simple - you will convert to Islam......or you will die.

PRE-invasion quotes from alQaeda:

"If America will not convert on its own, we will eventually become strong enough to topple the government and convert America and her people by force."

"The operations are under preparation and you will see them in your houses as soon as they are complete."

And from Bin Laden himself:

"We love death. The U.S. loves life. That is the difference between the two."

Take a long look at the latest car and truck bomb attacks and suicide bombers taking place in and around Baghdad of late - their targets are not U.S. troops, but rather their own people. Do you think this will stop if they are victorious? Do you think, based on their tactics of terror and indiscriminate murder, they will stop if they are victorious and therefore successful?

Consider their history - they have been murdering innocent men, women and children around the globe for over 35 years now, pretty much with impunity. Our war on terror is their first real obsticle - it's not an easy war or short term war - but it's one that we had better win.

Do not underestimate this ideology of hate and domination - the last time we did that, it cost an estimated 62 Million lives to finally defeat the Nazis. Inaction, appeasement and no effective responce only allows this ideology to fester and grow - and history has demonstrated that it only leads to more terror and murder - and events such as 9/11.

No absolutely your getting the guidelines perplexed. Saddam killed his own human beings in a non warfare time, and in chilly blood. the US is actively engaged ina warfare, hence any losses are seen colateral harm, regardless of if ninety% of civilian deaths are from insurrection assaults on mosques and marketplaces. If we withdrawl, than the liberals ought to dangle because all those civialians who voted professional democracy, and all those iraqi police will be slaughtered. do not forget that we are no longer at "finished warfare" with iraq, hence we save the civilian deaths all the way down to an absolute minimum. We even attempt to jailed the marines in haditha that kiled that kin out of anger, in a time of warfare that continually would have not at all been investigated yet we are so humane and good as a united states of america that we presented them to justice. notwithstanding, I dont trust they ought to were convicted, yet thats in simple terms my 2 cents. stop tying the hand of our troops with those comments guised as some distant take care of the iraqi human beings, you comprehend you in effortless words hate your united states of america, you do not love iraqis.

Insurgents aren't laying low now.

We can't remain there forever, and if they are looking for "the right time", they are never going to get it. It is not our job to stop a civil war, and that is what is going to happen. We removed the existing government. What in the hell did Bush think was going to happen when he took out Saddam? It wasn't going to just be "well, let's listen to the US. . . After all, it isn't their fault that there is all the violence". Oh wait - Yes it is!! We caused the unrest in removing the government. Logic would dictate that someone is going to fight for the right to run the country.

But again, Bush really didn't want to listen to his advisors. I am sure someone told him all this, and he didn't care.

Agreed. Unfortunately, a lot of people in this country seem to think that we're fighting for ourselves in Iraq. This is a misnomer. We are fighting for the Iraqis. But - and here's the really tricky part - we are also fighting AGAINST the Iraqis. Call me crazy, but I don't think it's wise to engage in someone else's civil war.

Actually their main hobby is blowing up each other, children, women, shoppers...

I'm sure that as soon as the US troops leave, they will all join hands, have a Coke, and sing in simple harmony.

Right after they hack a few heads off, anyway.