“Not believing in force is like not believing in gravity.”
Leon Trotsky
“THE QUICKEST WAY OF ENDING A WAR IS TO LOSE IT.”
GEORGE ORWELL
“Of course, the Maliki government owns most of the blame [2] for the spreading destruction of Iraq. Its retrograde exclusion of Sunnis from meaningful government helped to offer a fertile landscape to a resurgent al Qaeda. Now in extremis he seeks U.S. help. But Maliki’s pathetic past chauvinistic posturing over the status of forces agreement made it easy for Obama to pull out. (Hint to former U.S. clients: never horse-trade with Barack Obama over a needed U.S. military presence by threatening to eject all Americans; he will gladly call your bluff and leave every time.)”
Actually President Obama owns this foreign policy disaster, because as the American president the was the senior partner, the “adult “ in the relationship with Iraq, and everyone else in the world sees it that way and that America abandoned the orphaned child “Iraq”. Everyone else in the world knows that PM Maliki was holding out more “stuff’ and a larger stay behind force with his posturing over the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA). But Maliki didn’t understand that President Obama was sincere in his desire to leave Iraq. Thus, as VDH wrote, Obama called Maliki’s bluff and left, without looking back.
…”So older Americans who remember 1975 will recognize the outlines of the looming Afghan tragedy. Hundreds of thousands of refugees will head out of the country. Millions camped on hillsides will want to reach the U.S. Afghanistan has no seacoast, so we will not be able to call the escapees “boat people.” Ending two wars will mean that our allies would lose both and eventual enemy satiation with defeat and mass-scale murdering would ensure closure.”
As much as we might deplore the impending loss of Iraq, and Afghanistan too for that matter, it does not look like there is much Americans will be willing to do to prevent it at this point. Our President has assessed that the American people no longer have any stomach for engaging in war in the Middle East. And that, in particular, they won’t be willing to sacrifice anymore of their children to help save the corrupt and cowardly Shia Arabs currently controlling the Iraqi government. He is undoubtedly correct in that assessment. The fall of Iraq to the ISIS terrorists will no doubt have severe consequences for America in the future (much as we would like to imagine that we can isolate ourselves from the turmoil overseas), but regardless, future American presidents will just have to deal with the world President Obama has left them as best that they can. The rest of the world has learned the lesson that the new “transformed” America is harmless as an enemy, and treacherous and fickle as a friend.
By Epictetus
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