NR: "You're going to see a Lebanon-style situation..."


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Length: 1:17

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KYRA PHILLIPS: Michael Ware joining us from Baghdad.

Michael, in your piece, you point out this is ugly but effective, and that's an interesting point.

Is there talk off the record that maybe U.S. troops will leave or leave sooner and just let al Qaeda and militias kill each other off?

MICHAEL WARE: Well, certainly that's one of the alternatives that face the American military, Congress, and the public. That's definitely a road that can be gone down, particularly if the U.S. withdrawal is rapid or precipitous. I mean, that will signal, you know, in terms of the regional players here, a defeat by America, and America's going to have to wear that.

What they're going to leave behind is what you've just been watching. You're going to see a Lebanon-style situation with very powerful groupings of militias all with external backers going toe to toe.

Now, it's going to turn out that at the end of the day, probably America itself will back many of these Sunni militias. And if America doesn't, America's Arab allies certainly are -- Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt. So, this might just be a glimpse of the future -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: It will be interesting to watch.

Michael Ware, thanks.