Con Coughlin: Obama is running out of Iraq for all the wrong reasons
[Con Coughlin is Executive Foreign Editor of the Daily Telegraph.]
In his haste to withdraw America's remaining combat troops from Iraq, President Barack Obama appears to have overlooked one rather vital consideration. The Iraqis are desperate for them to stay.
Iraq might be a very different place today from the country that was oppressed by Saddam Hussein's dictatorship, but it still has some way to go before it completes the transition to the functioning democracy the majority of Iraqis crave. When Tariq Aziz, Saddam's former apologist-in-chief, issues a stark warning from his Baghdad prison cell that his country will be thrown to the wolves if the Americans leave, we should all take notice.
Five months after Iraq's general election, the main political parties are still arguing over who should form the new government. This political vacuum has been filled with an upsurge in the sectarian violence that has plagued the country since Saddam's overthrow in the spring of 2003. Consequently, more civilians are being killed in Iraq today than in Afghanistan. The Iraqi authorities say 535 people were killed last month alone – the highest casualty rate for two years – while the eerie black and yellow emblem of al-Qaeda has made an unwelcome return to the streets of downtown Baghdad.
But none of this appears to have made much of an impression on Mr Obama. No matter that a stable Iraq is vital to Washington's long-term strategic interests in the region: the American president remains determined to fulfil his pledge, made shortly before taking office, that he would end America's military involvement in the country this summer.
There are no prizes for guessing why Mr Obama is so keen to bring home the 90,000 remaining US combat troops. Faced with the distinct possibility of political humiliation in November's mid-term elections, the president is desperately grasping at anything that might shore up his plunging popularity ratings. And on that score Iraq ticks all the boxes...
Read entire article at Telegraph (UK)
In his haste to withdraw America's remaining combat troops from Iraq, President Barack Obama appears to have overlooked one rather vital consideration. The Iraqis are desperate for them to stay.
Iraq might be a very different place today from the country that was oppressed by Saddam Hussein's dictatorship, but it still has some way to go before it completes the transition to the functioning democracy the majority of Iraqis crave. When Tariq Aziz, Saddam's former apologist-in-chief, issues a stark warning from his Baghdad prison cell that his country will be thrown to the wolves if the Americans leave, we should all take notice.
Five months after Iraq's general election, the main political parties are still arguing over who should form the new government. This political vacuum has been filled with an upsurge in the sectarian violence that has plagued the country since Saddam's overthrow in the spring of 2003. Consequently, more civilians are being killed in Iraq today than in Afghanistan. The Iraqi authorities say 535 people were killed last month alone – the highest casualty rate for two years – while the eerie black and yellow emblem of al-Qaeda has made an unwelcome return to the streets of downtown Baghdad.
But none of this appears to have made much of an impression on Mr Obama. No matter that a stable Iraq is vital to Washington's long-term strategic interests in the region: the American president remains determined to fulfil his pledge, made shortly before taking office, that he would end America's military involvement in the country this summer.
There are no prizes for guessing why Mr Obama is so keen to bring home the 90,000 remaining US combat troops. Faced with the distinct possibility of political humiliation in November's mid-term elections, the president is desperately grasping at anything that might shore up his plunging popularity ratings. And on that score Iraq ticks all the boxes...