Juan Cole recently wrote an odd piece:
One Year Later: Did Obama Win the Iraq War?Maybe Cole's sunny (definitely not Sunni) outlook is right and Iraq will stay quiet enough, in the near term, for Obie's "timetable" to go as planned. Who knows?Obama's biggest practical foreign policy success has been in keeping to his withdrawal timetable in Iraq....
Over Gen. Ray Odierno's objections, in June 30, 2009, US troops ceased independently patrolling major Iraqi cities. Iraqis celebrated this change as 'sovereignty day.'
... Critics of Obama often charge him with failing to end the Iraq War. But there is no longer an Iraq War. There are US bases in a country where indigenous forces are still fighting a set of low-intensity struggles, with little US involvement.
... The attention of the US public has turned away from Iraq so decisively that Obama's achievement in facing down the Pentagon on this issue and supporting Iraq's desire for practical steps toward sovereignty has largely been missed in this country.
... Obama was handed a series of catastrophes. He has done better in handling some than others. But his decision on Iraq was the right one, the one that allows the US to depart with dignity, and allows Iraqis to work out their own internal problems. It is in this sense that Obama won the Iraq War.
But in that case, surely we would have to say that it was in fact Bush who "won" the Iraq war? I mean -- "the surge worked," right?
Credit where it's due, of course. Obie in Iraq, as in every other area of policy, has proven himself exceptionally capable and consistent in carrying forward the initiatives of the Bush years, with that cool lucid competence which is, after all, his finest quality.
Comments (6)
empire affairs are indeed run smoothly these days
the armada needs a breather anyway
the self imprisoned peoples of iran
will just have to chug along
under minimal ...ahhh ...cia-sunstein type ...
maladroit uncle fuckster
essays in persuasion
Posted by op | January 22, 2010 7:59 AM
Posted on January 22, 2010 07:59
empire affairs are indeed run smoothly these days
the armada needs a breather anyway
the self imprisoned peoples of iran
will just have to chug along
under minimal ...ahhh ...cia-sunstein type ...
maladroit uncle fuckster
essays in persuasion
Posted by op | January 22, 2010 8:00 AM
Posted on January 22, 2010 08:00
Juan Cole is also demonstrating a "lucid cool competence" in sucking up to the new party in power. Once upon a time, Cole was a hero to the anti-warriors; now he is just a smooth apologist.
Posted by senecal | January 22, 2010 10:10 AM
Posted on January 22, 2010 10:10
Speaking of "intellectuals"...Juan Cole, Mideast scholar extraordinaire rides again. Afghanistan was the "right war at the right time" and Obama is the right president at the right time. Any questions?
Posted by Sean | January 22, 2010 1:08 PM
Posted on January 22, 2010 13:08
Juan Cole is a joke.
Posted by CF Oxtrot | January 22, 2010 2:37 PM
Posted on January 22, 2010 14:37
"...Cole was a hero to the anti-warriors; now he is just a smooth apologist."
...and Cindy Sheehan is "crazy."
Posted by ms_xeno | January 23, 2010 10:23 AM
Posted on January 23, 2010 10:23