Troops leaving Iraq and going...somewhere...else?

I was just thinking today about the reported plans for drawing down American troops in Iraq. Where will they go? Back to the USA I'd assume. Oddly enough though in neighboring Iran the new president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been talking some serious smack. Wiping Israel off the map, passing out nuclear bomb plans like PTA flyers to his neighbors, and purging his government of anyone not exactly loyal to him.

Let me see now, we're several years into a war against a regime which was believed to be working feverishly towards nuclear weaponry and now it looks like we might be finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel there. But wait, right next door is another nation which is unquestionably doing the same. I mean, even Jacques Chirac wouldn't deny that now. With all of the Muslim unrest in his country I wonder if the prospect of a nuclear Iran makes him worry. Any chance that some of those soldiers who might be leaving Iraq could soon find themselves deployed to someplace whose name starts with I-R-A but doesn't end with a Q? Who knows, but I do notice that Iran is pretty much pissing everyone off these days. Now rumors are starting to fly that Iran has been training Chechnyn terrorists. You know, like those miserable fucks who killed all of those schoolchildren in Beslan. Russia has had Iran's back in the past, but their support of Chechnyn terrorists is straining that relationship. And after all, why wouldn't Ahmadinejad be helping them out, it seems part of the manifesto. Just ask people in Iraq how if feels to be on the receiving end of Iranian terrorist exports.

I'm not sure how I feel about all of that, but I just have to remember something I noticed some time ago, when looking at this picture, what is that place between Afghanistan and Iraq? Right. Talk about your hammer and anvil. Between those two nations all sorts of military infrastructure has been built up already and American soldiers have learned an awful lot about how to fight in that part of the world. Invading Iran would almost be like invading Iraq all over again but kinda like a "do-over." A chance to avoid the major mistakes and not make such a hash of it. I'd guess that if such an intervention took place that there would be much less of an occupation going on, more like the original sanctions regime that Iraq lived with during the 90s. This time with unfettered access to any potential nuclear sites and probable elimination of any meaningful military power.

Something more to think about.