Iraq violence threatens to engulf Mideast

WASHINGTON, May 3 (UPI) -- A rapid withdrawal of U.S. soldiers from Iraq could draw the entire Middle East into a war that would rage for years, military analysts say.

Pulling U.S. troops from Iraq too quickly could trigger sectarian violence throughout the region, military analysts told CNN. Al-Qaida then would use Iraq as a terrorist hub from which to threaten the rest of the world, CNN terrorism analyst Peter Bergen said.

"Everyone wants the (American) troops home ... but no one wants a precipitous withdrawal that produces a civil war, a bloodbath, nor a wider war in an unstable Mideast," said retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Don Shepperd, a military analyst for CNN.

The image of the United States is important, too, Shepperd said.

"We do not want a (United States) that is perceived as having been badly defeated in the global war on terror," Shepperd said, "or as an unreliable future ally or coalition partner."

Congressional Democrats and Republicans are working on a new war spending bill to replace the one vetoed by President Bush Tuesday precisely because it required that the first U.S. combat troops be withdrawn by Oct. 1 with a goal of a complete withdrawal six months later.