War games show no bloodbath or al Qaeda takeover after US pullout from Iraq RAW STORY
Published: Monday July 23, 2007
CNN spoke on Monday with Marine Colonel (ret.) Gary Anderson about possible scenarios the US military has been war gaming for conditions in Iraq following a US pullout.
"You would definitely see an attempt by Shia elements ... to ethnically cleanse ... the central area," Anderson said. "I don't think it's going to be necessarily the bloodbath that conventional wisdom predicts, because the Sunnis really can't generate enough mass to make it a Bosnia type fight. ... Once they're out there [in Anbar Province], I think the Shia will forget about them." He also downplayed any threat from al Qaeda, saying, "I think the other Sunni states in the region would step in to try to help the tribal sheikhs out there fight the al Qaeda."
Anderson sees the greatest potential for violence as between pro- and anti-Iranian Shias, which "could be a very bloody, very troublesome thing." He expects the Iranians would definitely get more involved in Iraq but said that "the danger would be ... from their standpoint, for them to get in there and for them to get bogged down in a quagmire.
The following video is from CNN's American Morning broadcast on July 23.
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