What next Iraq

Now that the finger pointing over Iraq has started, it is time to review the past so as not to reinvent the past as is being done by too many. Prior to the invasion of Iraq the situation was consider dire and a threat to the United States. There is a lengthy list of those who were for the Iraq war and the list includes many names who today are trying to distance themselves from that. After the war started a fatal mistake was made by the Bush administration when they asked the question, where are the WMD. The more appropriate question would have been where did the WMD go? There were dozens of countries who gave thousands of tons of WMD to Iraq. Sadam said he destroyed the WMD but when asked where he refused to say because soil samples taken at the site would have shown if this really happened. To this day no one knows where these WMD went. Many of these people are now saying it was a mistake to go into Iraq and with the benefit of hindsight there are good reasons to believe that. As the war progressed things went from bad to worse starting with not being prepared to protect the country from looters as the country was liberated from the dictator Saddam Husain. At the lowest point General Patraeus was sent to develop a counterinsurgency plan and within two years it was successful so by 2011 there was relative peace in the country. At that time The President said: But we’re leaving behind a sovereign, stable and self-reliant Iraq, with a representative government that was elected by its people. We’re building a new partnership between our nations.” Here is Joe Biden on the same subject. Vice President Joe Biden predicted in 2010 that Iraq would be “one of the greatest achievements” of the Obama administration. Some say it was a mistake not too leave some troops in Iraq but The President was unable to develop a status of force agreement which means that the US would be responsible for the safety of the troops. Some say he did not push the issue because he was looking for a reason to pull the troops out but there is no way to verify that but it does fit with his idea of ending both wars. The danger here is what will happen in Afghanistan when we pull everyone out at the end of 2016 which happens to be the end of Obama’s second term. In the absence of American presence Maliki began to replace seasoned well trained officers with his political friends. Many of those replaced were Sunni Muslims and all were replaced by Shia Muslims. This resulted in the Sunni’s feeling left out and when the recent invasion by the ISIS group took place these dis-satisfied Sunni’s joined in with the group and that is where we are today. We are now awaiting The Presidents next move.