American troops are leaving Iraq.

I offer no judgements here. I'm just aware, that as loving and progressive as protesting war is... when we left the southeast asian region we had totally destabalized in the sixties, roughtly three million civilians died in the insanity of the Khemer Rouge. I have long believed that we, Americans, hold a deep responsibility for this.

I find it difficult to believe a similar situation isn't about to happen now. When the Eurpoean colonials left africa, africa went nuts. basically, when modern politicians create borders that ignore old rivalries... and become the power structure... and then leave a vacumn, there is a long history of what happens next... ethnic rivalries get much more pronounced, as the devestation of the people's demands expression, and they take it out on each other.

Is this about to happen again? What can we do? What can we THINK, here, that can imagine a different scenario?