[Daus]

I've told people for a long time that the biggest reason we went into Iraq was because of the NEXT war with Iran and Syria.

It's all one big game of chess. We needed pieces on the board and they couldn't be based out of Saudi or Kuwait for the go around with Iran. Iraq is geographically perfect for what we need to do now.

My belief was that Syria was going to be Phase 2. Iran may push itself up in line if they keep at this.

[Mark Felton]

People also forget that we have huge allies now in the region sicne the Iraq war began.

In Pakistan we now have 3 new airbases.

We have new bases in Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Jordan (covert, SOF operational bases), Turkey, Kuwait, saudi Arabia (we will use these gain in event of regional war), Qatar, UAE, etc etc...

India will also be supportive in a big big way that yet remains to be seen by the world.