The disaster in Iraq
AEIdeas
Some time ago, I sat in Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki’s office and pressed him about helping anti-Assad forces in Syria. The case I made was that Sunni Arabs would be grateful if Iraq ranged itself on the side of what was then good against Assad’s evil. At the time, there was resupply to Assad over Iraq and it seemed Maliki was doing Iran’s bidding, as his critics suggest.
Maliki frowned and pushed back, not, he explained, because he had any brief for Assad. Having lived under Assad for years, Maliki took pains to express his distaste for the Syrian dictator. But, he underscored, Iraq has its own reasons not to step in. Our Western provinces, he explained, are not now secure. And trouble in Syria will reignite all the sectarian conflict we fought to leave behind. Like him, or don’t, Maliki certainly knew what was coming.
Fast forward to June 2014, and the fall of Mosul and Tikrit to terrorists from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. The Obama administration has turned its back on Maliki—their erstwhile protégé—and the Iraq our soldiers helped build. Iraq would likely not be in this place had the Obama people cared to support rebels in Syria before al Qaeda got involved. But the president’s ideological blinders are so firmly in place, he pats himself on the back for “ending” the war in Iraq….only to foster the beginning of another.
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I wholeheartedly disagree. There are no good guys worthy of US support in any of this, except the Kurds.
These jihadis storming through Iraq were armed by Obama in Syria (another conflict with no good guys).
We need to stay out of it. Iraq belongs to Iran. Let the Mullahs deal with the flaming bag of poo on their doorstep. With any luck, it will bring down their regime.
Iraq was more stable…under Saddam Hussien. Egads, what a disaster has been wrought after trillions of dollars of oulays by the US foreign policy and military agencies.
Please, no more taxes for these fool’s errands in the Mideast. I do not believe Ms. Pletka’s crystal ball knows what happen next, or what is good for long-run US prosperity. She does know how to throw taxpayer money around.