At the end of last year and the beginning of this year Iraq has seen an insurgency led by groups affiliated with Al Qaeda trying to reassert itself into Fulluja and Ramadi, in the Anbar Province. These two cities were the scene of some of the bloodiest battles of Iraq War, with the U.S. Marines fighting the largest battle of the Iraq war in Fulluja.
The real problem in Iraq goes straight to Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki. Al-Maliki did everything to consolidate power, marginalize the Sunni’ minority using heavy handed attacks when responding to Sunni protest in 2012, often with violent results.
In the U.S., pundits on both sides are debating what went wrong in Iraq, with Democrats rehashing the 2002 war authorization giving President Bush the impetus to use military force in Iraq.
What Democrats fail to mention is that a vast majority of Democrats voted for the war to include, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, then-Senator Hillary Clinton, Vice President Joseph Biden, and then-Senator John Kerry. It’s interesting to note that both Biden and Kerry voted against the first Gulf War but voted for the war in Iraq.
Republicans use the moniker on what happened after 2009, when President Obama took office and basically wanted nothing to do with Iraq as that was the wrong war and his focus went to other areas.
Many of the problems in Iraq go back to after the invasion of Iraq when U.S. forces virtually had no plan in post-war Iraq. The Bush Administration made significant mistakes, to include not understanding the huge legacy of Saddam Hussein’s disastrous Iraqi infrastructure and massive sectarian strife.
The biggest mistake was dissolving the Iraqi army, which lead to 400,000 mainly Sunni dominated officer corps and soldiers unemployed, and virtually no strategic reconstruction plan in the wake of removing the Hussein regime from power.
The other aspect that media pundits mention in the U.S. comment on is the fact the Obama administration did not aggressively complete a Status of Forces Agreement with Iraq. The Bush Administration had completed a SOF in its waning days; the agreement just needing to be finalized.
The President Obama was not interested in Iraq and just wanted out, and removed all U.S. troops out of Iraq going against his military commanders who wanted a remain behind force to training Iraqi security forces.
What should be discussed is why did the president replace former U.S. Central Command Commander, General Anthony Zinni, with U.S. diplomat Christopher Hill?
General Zinni knew the region from his time as commander during the Clinton administration, and the ambassador had virtually no knowledge or experience dealing with the volatile Middle East.
By having General Zinni as the ambassador it would have singled to al-Maliki that he U.S. was serious and was not abandoning Iraq.
Prime Minister al-Maliki visited the White House in 2011 as one a way to size up the president on his commitment to Iraq. He informed the president that he had evidence of corruption charges on a prominent Sunni political leader, Tariq al-Hashemi, and other key members of his Iraqi National Movement.
The President basically told al-Maliki this was an Iraqi internal matter, which al-Maliki took this he could do what he wanted, without repercussions from the United States.
Both Bush and Obama failed to understand the complexities of the Middle East and we are still witnessing chaotic U.S. policy in in Iraq, and continued in other countries such as Libya, Syria, and Egypt.
The U.S. needs a coherent strategy in the Middle East but not from so called political foreign policy experts.
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