article_snippet.sent: (CNN)She predicted events that unfolded in the Middle East well before they happened.
article_snippet.sent: If war prevails, we shall beget a greater disorder in the Persian Gulf," Mackey wrote in her book on Iran.
article_snippet.sent: We will be sucked into the resentments of the Arab world, the hostilities of the Iraqis, and the challenge of nation building in what has become an intensely tribal society at the core of American vital interests in the oil-rich Persian Gulf.''
article_snippet.sent: The crowds in Baghdad and Basra (like the crowds in Kabul that greeted their liberators with kites and music) may yet embarrass Mackey and the countless naive people who see things her way,
article_snippet.sent: In a perfect world, Shia, Sunni, and Kurd, followed by a company of other minorities, would walk into Iraq as a liberated people united by common suffering," Mackey wrote.
article_snippet.sent: But as all those who plot the way of nations are so acutely aware, the world is not perfect.
article_snippet.sent: With American troops on the ground and no governing authority capable of taking charge, the United States faces the real possibility of a secular version of militant Islam," Mackey said.
article_snippet.sent: Thus, American military forces rotate in and out, U.S. taxpayer money finances the occupation, and Iraqi hostility to a Western presence increases.
article_snippet.sent: There is no exit strategy except retreat.