Saturday, January 7, 2012

The Shape in Which the U.S. Has Left Iraq

Council on Foreign Relations adjunct fellow Meghan L. O'Sullivan fills us in:
While Americans have been welcoming the "end" of the war in Iraq over the past few days, a political crisis of serious proportions has been unfolding in Baghdad.

The fragile governing coalition that has teetered between dysfunction and collapse for the past year appears to be splintering, strained by personality clashes, governance disagreements and sectarian rivalries coming to a head.

Only a matter of hours after the last convoy of U.S. troops exited, the Iraqi government issued an arrest warrant for one of the nation's vice presidents on terrorism charges; the prime minister urged Parliament to eject one of his deputies for calling him a dictator in the news media; unruly protests followed a vote in favor of greater provincial autonomy; and Iraqiya -- the Sunni-dominated political coalition in an uneasy alliance with the party of Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki, a Shiite -- walked out of Parliament. Meanwhile, Iraqi parliamentary leaders of various stripes are gathering in the northern Kurdish region, likely to debate their options for opposing Maliki's "centralizing tendencies" and increasingly strong grip on power.
The war the U.S. started was a mess, as is the peace, if you want to call it that.

3 comments:

  1. And this has negative implications for stock markets......

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  2. Before the invasion there was a balance, now there is a vacuum. Better we had never invaded and left the old balance in place. Now we face an unknown future in Iraq where anything including the worst of evils seek to fill the vacuum.

    Another classic case of unintended consequences. Well done America!

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  3. Come on, Wenzel! You sayin' the mission to Iraq was a failure? But of course, it was a brilliant success! Halliburton, Goldman, et al brought in millions for their investors. Who said breaking windows doesn't stimulate? Put million$ in the coffers of our buddies, the 0.001%, and makes for great TV too. It's like the Roman coliseum but on the big screen where the Americans are the lions and the brown people are the Christians... well Muslims actually. Now, on to Iran! Woo hoo! /sarc

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