Iraqis fret about security after U.S. withdrawal

[Casino67]

MSNBC.com:

Iraqis fretted about the ability of their armed forces to protect them from violence after U.S. President Barack Obama said on Friday all U.S. troops would withdraw by the end of the year.

Washington and Baghdad failed to agree on the issue of immunity for U.S. forces after months of talks over whether American soldiers would stay on as trainers more than eight years after the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

Obama's announcement prompted worries among Iraqis over the stability of their country and a possible slide back into sectarian violence.
"Our forces are still not capable of facing our security challenges. I'm afraid this withdrawal will allow al-Qaida and the militias to return," said Baghdad shoe shop owner Ziyad Jabari.


__________________________

Will the next president have to go back in 2013? I don't think we should throw away our maps of Baghdad.

[Saltbag]

Since when did people's lives have an effect on his political decisions? He has a campaign to run!

 

I'm more surprised that it's not timed closer to his election. Pulling out by the end of this year allows time for things to implode before November 2012.

[Pepper]

Good point, Saltbag! But Obama will be on nonstop campaigning until then, continually dividing the nation. We could only hope that he implodes.

[Valin]

From The Right

 

Commentary: The Iraq Withdrawal Is Nothing to Brag About

Max Boot

10.21.2011 M

 

If there is one constant of American military history it is that the longer our troops stay in a country the better the prospects of a successful outcome. Think of Germany, Italy, Japan or South Korea. Conversely when U.S. troops rush for the exits hard-won wartime gains can quickly evaporate. Think of the post-Civil War South, post-World War I Germany, post-1933 (and post-1995) Haiti, post-1972 Vietnam, or, more recently, post-1983 Lebanon and post-1993 Somalia.

 

Keep that history in mind as you listen to President Obama boast: “As promised, the rest of our troops in Iraq will come home by the end of the year. After nearly nine years, America’s war in Iraq will be over.”

 

Far from being cause for celebration, Obama’s announcement that we will keep only 150 U.S. troops in Iraq after the end of the year–down from nearly 50,000 today–represents a shameful failure of American foreign policy that risks undoing all the gains that so many Americans, Iraqis, and other allies have sacrificed so much to achieve. The risks of a catastrophic failure in Iraq now rise appreciably. The Iranian Quds Force must be licking its chops because we are now leaving Iraq essentially defenseless against its machinations. Conversely the broad majority of Iraqis who fear Iranian influence and who want their country to become a democracy will come to rue this day, however big a victory it might appear in the short term for the cause of Iraqi nationalism.

(Snip)

 

From The Left

 

CNN: Zakaria: Iran wins with Iraq withdrawal

I spoke with John King from Tehran about America's withdrawal from Iraq. Here's a transcript of our conversation:

10/21/11

 

John King: A simple question up front. U.S. troops leaving Iraq by the end of the year, Iran has to view this as a victory.

 

Fareed Zakaria: Oh, I'm sure it views it as a victory. Iran views what had happened in Iraq entirely from a kind of geopolitical prism. That is the U.S. and Iran are competing for influence in Iraq. They have viewed it that way from the start of the fall of the regime and they have their agents in there and Iran has long ties to many of threat groups that are now dominant in Iraq.

 

Prime Minister Maliki and his party were in exile in Iran for 10 years. Many of the Kurdish leaders, including the current president of Iraq, was in Iran. Many of them speak fluent Persian. They have long and ongoing ties. Muqtada al-Sadr, when he finds that things get difficult for him in Iraq he head backs to Iran. So all of these political officials have been nourished sustained by Iran. And as American troops draw down, Iran's influence can only increase.

(Snip)

 

Serious people see this as a really bed idea.

[Valin]

Good point, Saltbag! But Obama will be on nonstop campaigning until then, continually dividing the nation. We could only hope that he implodes.

 

 

Question: When did "The One" stop campaigning?