Thomas J. Basile: Ghosts of Iraq Haunt Obama Campaign
Thomas J. Basile served as an adviser to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad from 2003-2004.
America's mission in Iraq may have ended but the Iraq War is far from over for President Obama. During his brief tenure in the Senate, Mr. Obama called for a precipitous with-drawal of our forces by the end of 2007. In 2008, he campaigned on a platform of bringing American troops home and closing the book on Iraq. Mr. Obama accomplished the former, but Iraq’s domestic political environment and increasingly close relationship with Iran may inject the war-torn nation back into the American political discourse.
The situation is a tragic reminder of just how fragile the country was when Mr. Obama opted to end any significant involvement in its future. It also may give Mitt Romney and the Republicans an opportunity to open an effective foreign policy front against the administration for leaving Iraq in the lurch and providing an opportunity for Iran to extend its influence in the region.
Dec. 15, 2011, saw an official end to U.S. military involvement in Iraq, and the fulfillment of one of Mr. Obama’s central campaign promises. Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta’s words ring as true now as when he formally marked the end to the U.S. mission in Iraq, stating, “Iraq will be tested in the days ahead - by terrorism and by those who would seek to divide, by economic and social issues, by the demands of democracy itself.”
Mr. Panetta also said clearly that the United States “will be there to stand by the Iraqi people as they navigate those challenges. …” In the days since, Iraq has been thrown to the wolves...