[Pagey]

"Iraq will be at the mercy of its mortal enemy,Iran".

Sorry Pat,I have to disagree.2 Men I highly respect,#41 and James A. Baker the Third, mistakenly made this same comment 10 years ago.The Entire Iraqi Military dies (and a good chunk of his population) defending Saddam, and they get some new leadership.(How that will transpire is waaaaaaaaay beyond me).I believe Iran will do no such thing as stick their fingers into what is going to happen in Iraq.Of course individual groups will make it hell,but I'll bet Iran doesn't want to come under any more scrutiny than they already are w/ the U.S.A.

[Petronski]

Iran may have been a threat to Iraq 10 years ago (or at least enough of a wildcard to keep us guessing), but Iran frankly faces too much internal instability now to afford foreign adventures like conquest of a Saddam-less Iraq.

[PsyOp]

"I'll bet Iran doesn't want to come under any more scrutiny than they already are w/ the U.S.A."

Indeed. They have enough trouble right now keep their own population under control. The last thing they are going to do is give us a reason to knock them off their fragile perch, or give their own people another reason to take to the streets. Those people are tired of fighting Mullah inspired wars against Iraq.

[Sci Fi Guy]

I believe Iran will do no such thing as stick their fingers into what is going to happen in Iraq

You're right, during the iran-iraq war, Iran used people as weapons (like Stalin did in WW2.) They lost an entire generation trying to push back Iraq. Their society is largely divided between the (now adult) children of the war dead who hate their gov't, and an extremely old ruling class. there have been massive protests against the ruling elites. Iran's leaders have to devote all their energy to preventing a revolution.