Iraq war is hurting our Middle Eastern allies

Some who have been supporters of the Iraq war ever since the beginning thought that such a conflict would frighten rogue states and terrorist entities in the region enough for them not to pursue weapons of mass destruction.  Although that was quite a noble goal, the exact opposite is taking place.  With the U.S. military stretched thin in Iraq, Iran is in a better position now than before the war to pursue such weapons.  The only countries that the war has frightened are moderate Sunni states like Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt -- all of which we partly depend on to secure our resources in the Middle East.

In fact, Jordan is worried that the war has even helped pro-Iranian Shiites increase their sphere of influence in the region:

King Abdullah of Jordan, a close U.S. ally, haswarned that the emergence of a Shiite-controlled Iraq could signal anew "crescent" of dominant Shiite movements or governments stretchingfrom Iran to Lebanon that could de-stabilize the region.

This shift in power is fueled by pro-Iranian Shiite nationalism, and is putting our resources in jeopardy.  Like it or not, we need oil.  Until we have complete energy independence, we cannot afford to have Iran's regional domination endanger our economic life-line.  As long as the region is polarized, pro-Iranian nationalism will increase.  So the longer we remain in Iraq, the more Iran can use our presence as a mechanism to fuel Shiite nationalism.  That is one of the many reasons why we need to start redeploying at the end of the year.  Middle Eastern stability, as many neo-realists would agree, not liberalization, should be our number one goal in the region at the moment.  You need stability before you can spread democracy, not the other way around like the Bush Administration believes.