Obama's surprise visit to Iraq

**Merlin** · 07 Apr 09,, 15:45

Today is not April 1.

As expected, this visit is unannounced to maintain secracy.

Obama makes surprise visit to Iraq

7 Apr 2009 [Independent] President Barack Obama made an unannounced visit to Baghdad today, marking a new chapter in his strategy to wind down the unpopular war in Iraq and shift the United States' military focus to Afghanistan.

The White House said that Obama would meet US commanders and troops. He would also speak to Iraqi leaders, but would call by telephone rather than see them in person because poor visibility prevented helicopter travel around the capital, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.

Flying secretly from Istanbul at the end of his first major international tour, Obama was to visit the scene of a war that he inherited from his predecessor, George W. Bush. It was his first visit to Iraq since before his November 2008 election victory, which was bolstered by his campaign pledge to start bringing US troops home.

Air Force One touched down at Baghdad International Airport a day after a string of seemingly coordinated bombings across the Iraqi capital killed 37 people. On Tuesday, a car bomb killed nine people and wounded 20 in the Shi'ite Kadhimiya district of northwest Baghdad, police said.

The attacks underscored security challenges as the US military prepares to implement Obama's order to withdraw all combat troops by August 2010. ...

**Merlin** · 08 Apr 09,, 16:35

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.