Thread: Obama's surprise visit to Iraq

This is what the US will leave behind in Iraq.

Obama and the Iraq we leave behind

Apr 8, 2009 [LA Times] President Obama's surprise layover in Baghdad on his way home from Europe and Turkey serves as a gloomy reminder that the war he opposed and then inherited isn't over yet. While the president has sought to shift focus to Afghanistan, Iraq has seen a spike in violence, including a series of bombings in Shiite Muslim neighborhoods of the capital that killed at least 46 people in the last two days.

At meetings with American soldiers and Prime Minister Nouri Maliki, Obama reaffirmed his commitment to draw down most of the 139,000 troops still stationed in Iraq by August 2010, and he rightly noted that the solution to the country's problems is political, not military.

The Bush administration's U.S. troop "surge" helped reduce violence last year with the goal of allowing political reconciliation between Iraq's Shiite majority and Sunni minority. Amid the relative calm, blast walls came down in many areas, stores reopened and a semblance of normal life returned to the capital. But Iraqi leaders failed to take advantage of the lull to resolve issues of power-sharing and the division of oil revenues underlying the violence. Last week, they seemed to be moving backward, as key U.S. allies on both sides faced off in what could be a harbinger of life after the United States' withdrawal. ....

As the date for the drawdown of U.S. forces approaches, Obama should use his leverage to press Maliki to incorporate the former Sunni insurgents into the security forces and political system. Without political reconciliation, Iraq will never have security and long-term stability.

Good for the soldiers...must've made their day!

Nebula82.

Originally Posted by nebula82

Good for the soldiers...must've made their day!

You mean the US soldiers, not the Iraqi soldiers.

Originally Posted by Merlin

You mean the US soldiers, not the Iraqi soldiers.

Yes.

Nebula82.