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It actually gets more depressing from there.
I am nearly speechless. Everyone but Obama could have predicted this disaster when he promised a date to pull out troops. It is tragic and depressing for everyone.
If this were a revolution of ordinary citizens, we’d have a good idea of what to do. But these are the followers of Mookie al-Sadr. This is Egypt all over again … replacing the current horrible alternative with something worse. Our own election is pretty much the same thing, only much less lethal; going from Obama to either Hillary or Trump strikes me as the same pattern – although the evil doesn’t compare, the pattern is going from bad to worse.
At this point, the replacement doesn’t have to be Superman or St. Ronald. I’ll happily settle for anyone reasonably effective; that is, mediocre but non-dictatorial. We don’t need anyone to make Iraq or America great again … just stop the trend from turning so badly downward.
It’s a bit simplistic for Politico to argue that this is the fault of the Green Zone. (Maybe less simplistic to say this is the fault of Obama’s pullout, but also more accurate.)
And:
My goodness, that sounds so familiar.
Iraqi protestors are demonstrating against the U.S. Congress? Now I have seen it all.
Biggest lesson from the era of Bush interventionism is that some peoples may not be worth saving, certainly the Afghan and Iraqi peoples have shown time and again they are not worth the life of a single American soldier.
General Petreus once told the corruptocrat Maliki to his face that he would order American armored units to block and fire upon the Iraqi Army if Maliki tried to carry out his plans to apply a massive, armed beatdown of the al-Sadr dissidents. Americans protected Iran-loving, utterly treacherous Shias from other, corrupt Shias after we liberated them all from Saddam.
Now those al-Sadr mobs are fighting hard to form an Iranian puppet state forever at war with the Sunni Arab and Kurds to the north. The hell with them all.
Didn’t Bush promise the date and Obama just saw it through?
All I would like to see is a “safe zone” established on the Nineveh Plains for Iraqi minorities like Christians and Yazidis to live in peace. Let the Sunnis and Shiites wage war on each other like they usually do. May the best sect win.
I wonder though, at what point, would we be able to pull our troops from there?
And predictions of disaster predated the firm pull out date. Like before the invasion.
There’s plenty of blame to go around (if that’s the intention).
On the bright side, people demonstrating against corruption is a good thing – no matter what their religion or politics.
“They” (the Govt of Iraq, the Kurds, the West) can’t even evict ISIS from Nineveh Plains – a safe zone at this point seems unlikely.
(And if there is a safe zone established, I hope the minorities don’t disappoint you once they have the ability to.)
But remember when some of us speak of caution towards the plans of the interventionists we are called fools.
History is the great leveler of ideas.
Fair point. If the West doesn’t have the political will to kick ISIS out, then we should help the Kurds to do the dirty work. I am sure they will be more than happy to annex the safe zone to “Kurdistan” in northern Iraq in exchange for letting the minorities live in peace.
Could someone remind me — didn’t we used to regard el Sadr as an Iranian agent provocateur? Didn’t his agenda used to be getting the Shiites to replace the Sunni ruling class?
Your point is well taken, Brent. But giving them notice that we were leaving was like shooting ourselves in the foot.
But look, the glass may be half full.
No. I would like to see you stop making this dishonest assertion. Bush never set a date to abandon the project, which is what Obama did on that date.
Perhaps you also believe that Joe Biden was supposed to come up with a Status of Forces Agreement.