For the sake of the other two hundred-odd countries on earth, I pray that the US fails, miserably and dramatically and at tremendous cost, in Iraq.
***EDITED HERE TO ADD: I do not mean "cost" in terms of soldiers' lives. I want EVERYONE to stay alive. I'm talking economically. END EDIT***
Many here will go on about how "even though we shouldn't have gone to war, we have to stay and restore civil society and freedom and rebuild the country," yada yada - a slightly more nuanced form of jingoism, Repiglican-lite. I'm sure that this, or an attempt at it, is precisely what will happen, although the prospect of a peaceful and productive country is about as remote as ever. And a peaceful yet American-influenced society would amount to a controlled, pacified society - a middle-eastern Banana Republic to be controlled and exploited by American corporations, and used as the staging ground for newer, more adventurous, and more deadly wars in the region by the military.
Losing would, of course, be terrible, at least in terms of lost lives on both sides; emotionally it would be tough to take for many, since everybody would've died for no reason. But "winning" would be worse.
A victorious America would be a continuing menace to the planet as a whole. Even if America doesn't "win" in Iraq for years to come, when and if it does, it will be not just a corporatist/colonialist would-be empire - it would be one on a winning streak. And one all the more ready to take on Iran, Syria, North Korea. One which would someday decide it wanted South African gold, Nigerian oil, Venezuelan oil...and which would face no opposition, other than piles of other countries' bodies, in its quest for them.
If America wins, the neocon agenda wins. The Project for a New American Century wins. The right-wing media wins; the Bushites win; their corporate sycophants win. So emboldened, so empowered, stopping them will be impossible. You'll be able to shred what's left of the constitution and the bill of rights. And any dream that people in the developing world have of ever achieving what we pretend to export - freedom, democracy, and all the other noble ideals that we were founded upon and have come to ignore - will die painfully.
***EDITED TO ADD: As I sat here answering some other people's posts, I heard on Mike Malloy's show that Richard Perle and (whatshisname) Edelstein, who have been out of sight during the campaign season, have returned to advocate military action against Iran and Syria in the name of "protecting America from possible nuclear attack." I think that this argues in favor of my points above.****