Sunni militants with ties to al Qaeda have overrun the city of Mosul in northern Iraq. This is a tragedy. The militants seek to establish a Sunni caliphate in the region which will be ruled by strict Sharia law. They are part of a rebel group in Syria that controls wide swaths of that country as well.
The Baghdad government has proven incapable of stopping the militants/terrorists. The government lost control of Ramadi and Fallujah to the militants about six months ago. Losing Mosul now means that a large section of Iraq is no longer even arguably under the control of the government.
How many thousands of Americans were killed or wounded in order to get the militants out of cities like Fallujah and Mosul? How many American lives were disrupted in that effort? How many hundreds of billions of dollars did we spend to achieve that end. And it was a result that we successfully achieved! When we left Iraq, the insurgents were beaten, the militants were gone.
In fairness, president Obama and secretary Clinton should get the credit for this disaster. It would have been easy to negotiate an agreement with the Iraqi government that would have allowed American troops to stay in Iraq. It would not have required ongoing fighting; the presence of 25,000 American forces would probably have been enough to keep the militants in bases in Syria. But Obama and Clinton did not reach such an agreement. They were in such a hurry to end any involvement in Iraq that they did not consider what would be best for the long term interests of the USA. American policy had more to do with the 2012 election than the course that would be of most benefit for the American people.
If things continue to go poorly in Iraq, the White House will probably leak some report that blames the Iraq position on Chuck Hagel. If they can do that for Bergdahl, why not for Iraq too? Okay, I realize that American forces had already left Iraq when Hagel was sworn in, but Hagel may not remember that.
The Baghdad government has proven incapable of stopping the militants/terrorists. The government lost control of Ramadi and Fallujah to the militants about six months ago. Losing Mosul now means that a large section of Iraq is no longer even arguably under the control of the government.
How many thousands of Americans were killed or wounded in order to get the militants out of cities like Fallujah and Mosul? How many American lives were disrupted in that effort? How many hundreds of billions of dollars did we spend to achieve that end. And it was a result that we successfully achieved! When we left Iraq, the insurgents were beaten, the militants were gone.
In fairness, president Obama and secretary Clinton should get the credit for this disaster. It would have been easy to negotiate an agreement with the Iraqi government that would have allowed American troops to stay in Iraq. It would not have required ongoing fighting; the presence of 25,000 American forces would probably have been enough to keep the militants in bases in Syria. But Obama and Clinton did not reach such an agreement. They were in such a hurry to end any involvement in Iraq that they did not consider what would be best for the long term interests of the USA. American policy had more to do with the 2012 election than the course that would be of most benefit for the American people.
If things continue to go poorly in Iraq, the White House will probably leak some report that blames the Iraq position on Chuck Hagel. If they can do that for Bergdahl, why not for Iraq too? Okay, I realize that American forces had already left Iraq when Hagel was sworn in, but Hagel may not remember that.
No comments:
Post a Comment