Originally posted by EternalOne:


First, Isreal would be destroyed, or at the very least occupied.


No disagreement here, nor would I care

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Next you would have Syria and Iran gaining in power in the region, able to say and do whatever they want, and shutting out all outside sources of information, thus winning the propaganda war, and bringing more youngsters under their reign.



Probably, not a concern of mine though.

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You would also have total collapse of the int'l waterways in the region, since currently the US Navy ensures open transport routes free of pirates.



Modern piracy isn't a huge problem in that part of the world (although I am sure you will say that is because of our presence there ). Regardless, even if this was the case, and worse case scenario they shut down the suez canal, I don't see the huge impact on the US of A, as that isn't a major trade route for us.

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Adding in that Iran and Syria would then exert their influence on every country in the region once again (Iraq, Palestine, Lebanon, etc) and now you have the majority of the worlds oil in control of a rogue group.



Not sure about global numbers, but these countries don't contribute as much oil as you think to the US. Regardless, even as much as these countries might hate the US (or the West) they aren't dumb enough to cut off their only good source of income.

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With int'l shipping hurting, and oil under their control, what do you think would happen here? Those large numbers of youngers I talked about above? Yeah, I'm sure they'd be happy with their small section... No, actually they'd then set their sights on the moderate Mulim nations, such as Egypt, Saudi, etc -- those with any ties to the West. From there you've now ended up creating an entire region of the world that is lawless and a breeding ground for terror. You think Iraq is bad now? Imagine an area 50x the size, where instead of 1% of the people willing to die to kill any American you have more along the lines of 50%, growing each year...



Infighting might increase no doubt. But isn't like they are all going to hold hands and unify against the west. Lets not forget how much many of these sects hate each other.



"Bros before Hoes" <-- More men need this mentality.