Since there are no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. There are only two moral reasons for us to still be in Iraq 1)To bring Democracy and freedom to an oppressed people 2)To try Saddam Hussein for his atrocities

Despite the footage on the Fox news channel of Iraqi women voting. And despite the fact that the new Iraqi government is theoretically being governed by a Democratic constitution, in reality it is still debatable whether Iraq is becoming a democracy. Since Iraq now has a Democratic constitution and in theory is a Democracy, that means the current Iraqi Prime Minister Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki should of course be demanding that Iraqi's of all religious denominations be treated the same.

However after Akram Jabaar a 23-year-old clothes vendor, had his leg severely injured in a bomb explosion, which was set up off by Shiite militias he complained that,"Maliki can't talk about national reconciliation when he is allowing those Shiite militias to run around and kill people."

Maliki is of course a Shiite Muslim. So we have an allegation that the American supported Prime Minister despite the fact he has agreed to a constitution calling for equal rights for all people has privately given militias permission to kill people who practice Islam differently then he does. If this allegation is true then the current Iraqi government is not practicing what we would consider to be Democracy.

Also there is the situation with Saddam Hussein's trial. If Saddam is given a fair trial, convicted and executed. The Iraqi people will have learned from our example how a criminal case in a democracy should be handled. On the other hand if Saddam Hussein's trial breaks out into anarchy then the Iraqi people will not have an opportunity to learn about rule of law.

That is why it is so disturbing that one of Saddam Hussein's lawyers was killed and many people claim that current Prime Minister Maliki ordered the hit. Obviously if Maliki believes in Democracy and what his own Iraqi constitution says then he would allow the trial to run its course, leave Saddam's fate in the hands of a jury and quietly root for a conviction. So if it is true that Maliki had one of Saddam's lawyers killed then the current Iraqi Prime minister doesn't believe in a Democratic legal system.

So the current Iraq is one of two things

1)A nation that will become a Democracy in the future.2) A nation run by a man who has agreed to a nice sounding constitution and granted his people some freedoms just to keep America happy. But meanwhile whenever he can get away with it quietly kills people of a different religious sect or tampers with the legal system.

If the second option is where we are, then the moment American troops leave, Iraq will become a dictatorship. This means that American troops are not dying for Democracy they are dying to put in place another dictator. If we are not sure about the true nature of the current Iraqi government, how can we send any more troops into harms way?

Also the biggest threat in the region to both America and our allies is Iran. Even France, a country that vigorously opposed the Iraq war, has voiced support for sanctions against Iran. But Iran can and already has retaliated against America, by sending terrorists over the border to attack our troops. Also the current Iraqi government has voiced support for Iran.Our troops are dying for a pro-Iranian government?

So I think that once Saddam Hussein's trial ends in the fall of 2006 we will tell Mr. Maliki that if he follows his constitution we will give him a generous foreign aide package. However if he turns out to be a dictator we will cut off all foreign aide and other financial support then in January of 2007 we will pull out of Iraq.

The new Iraqi government will then have the choice of being Democratic and getting American financial support or becoming dictatorial and losing American assistance.We will then in January of 2007,now that our troops are out of Iraq and no longer near Iran work with the world community to put sanctions on Iran and stop their nuclear program.

As for how it affects America if Iraq, doesn't become a Democracy. While that would be tragic for the Iraqi people, which is why I hope Iraq becomes a democracy,it wouldn't be tragic for America. If you traveled through America in 1985,you never would know by looking around that 10 years earlier we had lost the Vietnam war. So if we lose in Iraq, America will look the same as it did in the 1970’s and 1980’s,after we lost in Vietnam.