If it weren't for the oil and gas, we would have been out of Iraq and Afghanistan a long time ago

5 car bombings in Baghdad today--hundreds killed.

This is what happens when you set one group--the Shia-- against the other --the Sunni.

Oddly enough, we did the same thing in Afghanistan where we paid the Tajiks/Northern Alliance to battle the Taliban/Pashtun. And ever since CIA agents went to Afghanistan on horseback with saddlebags filled with dollars, paying/bribing became the way to go.

It would have been sensible to stay out of both countries but there's nothing like oil and gas to whet the Empire's appetite.