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CREDIT WHERE IT'S DUE.
Marc Ambinder asks:
President Obama very appropriately and correctly thanked U.S. Marines for precipitating the turnabout in Iraq. But if there is a chance of success in Iraq now as defined by Barack Obama, shouldn't there be some mention of the change in strategy, and the former Commander in Chief, the guy who hung in there?
I think the term "success" is doing a lot of work here. Barack Obama sees the chance for success in the mission defined by President Bush. But that's like a good price on a house you didn't need and can't afford. Iraq might happily avoid the cataclysmic failure foreseen in 2005, but we're still looking at an unstable Islamic republic that's closely aligned with Iran and continually on the brink of outright civil war. Success relative to the situation in 2005 is not success relative to the hopes in 2003 or the alternate world in which the trillions of dollars spent on Iraq were directed instead to other priorities.
COMMENTS (5)
Bush, thank you for not fucking up one issue quite as much as all rational observers thought you had. It's it's any comfort, Mr. Bush, your recession probably won't turn out to be as bad as the Great Depression either, and despite the increase in partisan rancor you didn't actually cause another Civil War.
Posted by: Cyrus | March 3, 2009 1:13 PM
un-frickin'-believable. every time i think that i know how foolish marc ambinder is, i discover he's worse than that.
we have wasted iraqi and american blood and american treasure for years in iraq. had bush actually chosen the alternate path available to him when he stubbornly opted for the surge, we would have spent less of both with no worse outcome than we're seeing now.
what kind of person thinks bush deserves any credit for any of this? what he deserves is blame, period, case closed.
Posted by: howard | March 3, 2009 1:31 PM
The surge did work - Bush's only goal was to make sure the US didn't leave Iraq while he was in office. The debate over the surge stymied Congressional Dems who wanted to push for withdrawal and now when Iraq goes to shit it will be on Obama's watch.
Publicly, the surge was suppose to be a temporary influx of troops to allow space for Iraqi political/ethnic reconciliation. About the only thing Iraqis agree on is that the US troops should leave. When that day comes what do the Sunnis who were pushed out of Baghdad do when they are no longer getting paid not to fight?
Posted by: cluster | March 3, 2009 2:16 PM
Personally, I would define "success" as not killing hundreds of thousands of innocent people in the first place.
But I'm funny, that way.
Posted by: Brautigan | March 3, 2009 3:02 PM
How Orwellian is that Ambinder post? Truly, the dominoes of the middle east have begun to fall! Israel/Palestine is near resolved! Iran is on the path to democracy! the Assads have been driven out of Damascus! Saudi Arabia is about to adopt the Equal Rights Amendment! Yemen embraced gay marriage! The last of Iraq's WMD have been uncovered and destroyed!
All those lives, all that money, those years of sectarian strife, a country torn into ethnic enclaves . . . all worth it for this wonderful outcome we've achieved!
Posted by: southpaw | March 4, 2009 12:20 AM