Tom Friedman: Obama's Iraq Inheritance
Tom gives us an excellent analysis as to what needs to happen in Iraq now.
"Al Qaeda has not been fully defeated in Iraq; suicide bombings are still an almost daily reality. But it has been dealt a severe blow, which I believe is one reason the Muslim jihadists — those brave warriors who specialize in killing women and children and defenseless tourists — have turned their attention to softer targets like India. Just as they tried to stoke a Shiite-Sunni civil war in Iraq, and failed, they are now trying to stoke a Hindu-Muslim civil war in India.
"Al Qaeda has not been fully defeated in Iraq; suicide bombings are still an almost daily reality. But it has been dealt a severe blow, which I believe is one reason the Muslim jihadists — those brave warriors who specialize in killing women and children and defenseless tourists — have turned their attention to softer targets like India. Just as they tried to stoke a Shiite-Sunni civil war in Iraq, and failed, they are now trying to stoke a Hindu-Muslim civil war in India.
"If Iraq can keep improving — still uncertain — and become a place where Kurds, Sunnis and Shiites can write their own social contract and live together with a modicum of stability, it could one day become a strategic asset for the United States in the post-9/11 effort to promote different politics in the Arab-Muslim world."
Read the full article at the link.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/30/opinion/30friedman.html?th&emc=th
Mr. Friedman writes: "In the last year, though, the U.S. troop surge and the backlash from moderate Iraqi Sunnis against Al Qaeda and Iraqi Shiites against pro-Iranian extremists have brought a new measure of stability to Iraq. There is now, for the first time, a chance — still only a chance — that a reasonably stable democratizing government, though no doubt corrupt in places, can take root in the Iraqi political space."
That sounds about right to me. President-Elect Obama now has a chance to capitalize on this situation to create a stable ally in this volatile area.
In this time of government transition, we can think about how this situation happened.
My conclusion is that George W. Bush and his administration deserve large credit. Despite intense criticism and savage ridicule and insult, and mis-steps along the way, Iraq is progressing toward an end result that George Bush described as an objective.
Thank you, Mr. Bush.
Just my opinion.
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Jim,
Jim, I'm sorry but I strongly disagree with your assessment and I am hard pressed to know how you can reach the conclusion you did. Thanks for your input, but I have a much different opinion.
Don't mistake what I am about to say. I believe there are times when this country must fight militarily to defend itself. When it does, I want this country to truly fight to win, not pretend to fight to win as we have done so digustingly the last 7 plus years.
Go back up to the top and your quoted excerpt from Friedman. ". . .the backlash from moderate Iraqi Sunnis against Al Qaeda and Iraqi Shiites against pro-Iranian extremists have brought a new measure of stability to Iraq."
As I have written and spoken of many times, the reason the Surge succeeded was because the Sunnis snitched on Al Qaeda and the Shia snitched on the Pro-Iranians. Had that not happened, we would have played our last card and had nothing to show for it. We don't gamble with our troops lives. We should put in a level of force from the very beginning with the numbers and equipment to keep an insurgency from taking root while we simultaneously did what was necessary diplomatically and politically to keep the lid on. Sadly, we did not and George Bush as CIC must take responsibility for those failures. The Surge was an inadequate force transformed into an overwhelming force by the intelligence provided by the snitchers.
George Bush deserves no credit whatsoever. He was and is an incompetent Commander in Chief who should have relieved of his command long ago. He deserves every bit of the "intense criticism and savage ridicule and insult" he has received. He has taken the actions that Osama Bin Ladin wanted the US to take. As a result, our economy is in shambles and the situation in Afghanistan is deteriorating. See this link. http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/12192008/transcript1.html
Good riddance, Mr. Bush. Our children and grandchildren will be paying the price for for your incompetence long after you are gone. This is the simple reality that needs to acknowledged. Had it been much earlier we would not be in the straits we are now.
That's my opinion.
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Wow, Larry. Your anger really comes through.
Recently, I attended a high school basketball game. It was an intense game between two schools that had just played for the state championship in football.
Near the end of the game, the fans for the losing team, the one that had won state in football, started a chant of "Football, Football". The winning team answered with the chant "Scoreboard, Scoreboard", meaning check the score, we are winning this game.
I guess I am chanting "Scoreboard, Scoreboard" concerning the Iraq situation. Friedman, and others, think there is a good chance to make something useful out of the situation there. I am asking how did that happen? Was it just an accident? I think it was not an accident. To me, the old anger and grudges are, or should be, water under the bridge.
Larry, in your response, I notice that you used the part of Friedman's quote that served your purpose, "the backlash........" but you ignored the part that undercut your argument,
"U.S. troop surge and the backlash.....". Dirty pool.
One more thing. You write "He deserves every bit of the intense criticism and savage ridicule and insult he has received".
That brings up a question of logic. If you feel free to supply intense criticism and savage ridicule and insult on a current president, is it OK for me, or anyone else, to supply intense criticism and savage ridicule and insult on a future president?
Where would that lead us? What would that do to reduce polarized politics?To tell the truth, I don't want to do that. That kind of behavior seems to me to be part of the problem, not part of the solution.
Just my opinion.
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Jim,
Thanks again for your comments.
What is there in my commentary that makes me seem angry?
Larry
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Larry,
I sensed anger by the words and how they were used.
One more thing on criticism, ridicule and insults.
I read this - You probably did, too. "We owe President-Elect Obama our support and respect, the same kind of support and respect the Democrats gave George W. Bush."
Just my opinion
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Jim,
Thanks for keeping the dialogue going.
I'm reminded of the saying of the former leader of Seal Team Six on leadership. "I will treat you all the same--like s**t--until you prove to me you deserve to be treated otherwise."
With politicians, especially new Presidents, there is usually (in contrast) a honeymoon period and then the sniping begins. We assume competence until something else is demonstrated.
You mentioned scoreboards in your last post. Every objective metric I can think of says the Presidency of George W. Bush has been a failure. I don't wish for failure, but that is the undeniable reality.
When I managed people, especially sales people, I often had people who could not or would not perform. That did not mean I hated them or was angry at them, nor that they were evil or deficient people. It simply meant they could not or would not perform in that particular job and needed to find something else to do. At the same time, the longer I Iet someone occupy one of my sales positions who was not performing, the more damage was done to my organization. Accordingly, once I determined that someone lacked the ability to perform, I took steps to replace them.
When the history of this period is written I predict a common thread will be how polarized politics prevented our government from functioning as it was designed to override or replace an incompetent Presdent. Every day Bush has remained as President has done more damage to our country and the Congress has aided and abetted in that damage. Exhibit A: How's your net worth doing?
Finally, with regard to the Surge, let me say that however unlikely the results are, I am delighted we have achieved them. I merely ask that you not charaterize that success as attributible to the wisdom and foresight of George W. Bush, because that is simply untrue. If Bush had wisdom and foresight, then actions would have been taken in 2002/3 that would have made the surge unnecessary in 2007.
That's my assessment.
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