Should the U.S. Immediately Begin Withdrawal from Iraq?

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The US entered Iraq in a deep belief that it can overpower the Arab political issues, and encounter the complexities of the despotic authoritarian regimes and patrimonial leadership, by building a stable and thriving democracy. However, this was an illusion collapsed in the sandy soil of the Middle East. The American belief in democracy has become a religion by itself, a total belief that it can be planted and grow, and by that all the region malaise will be solved. American policy-makers must sober up: democracy is a delicate political system, a regime that suits participant political culture, a modern free society, and other ingredients that the Middle East totally lacks.
The real issue, the most important problem in the contemporary Middle East is not the Arab-Israeli-Palestinian conflict or other regional conflicts, but the Shiite against Sunnah. Iran wishes to change the whole balance of power in the Middle East, to bring back `Ali's House to the center of Islamic leadership, to wipe out the Sunni religious superiority, after it was stolen by intrigues and malicious designs from `Ali 1400 years ago. Iran really believes that it is the ripe time to take hold of Islam, to take over Islamic leadership from the Sunnah. It really believes that the Mahdi is on his way to appear and to bring salvation to the world.

Under these circumstances, the question that the US should have asked was, do we have an alternative to Saddam regime that can put Iran at bay that can withhold Iranian onslaught to stir up, to revolutionize the whole Middle East? The answer is not. This brings the US to decide: if it sees Iran as a lethal threat to the whole region, and there is no strong and stable alternative to undermine it, than it must stay in Iraq with all its military power, even without trying to establish a democracy there. The US must bear in mind that there is a clear-cut Shiite majority in Iraq, and if it leaves, Iran will wipe out Iraq, bringing it under its fold, together with Syria, Lebanon and the Palestinian Authority. At best, Iraq will be separated to three regions as was the situation before the British Mandate until 1930 (a Kurdish non-Arab Sunni regime in the north; an Arab-Shiite regime in the south, and a mixed chaotic Sunni-Shiite situation at the center).