New York Times Columnist: Obama And Democrats Could Salvage Iraq War
Never mind that the terrorists have been defeated, an elected government is taking over, we’re one step away from an agreement that will set a date for our troops to come home and that all of this happened under President Bush.
No, Democrats are the ones who can “salvage” Iraq according to Thomas Friedman.
I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect Iraq to have relations with Israel anytime soon, but the fact that it may be developing an independent judiciary is good news. It’s a reminder of the most important reason for the Iraq war: to try to collaborate with Iraqis to build progressive politics and rule of law in the heart of the Arab-Muslim world, a region that stands out for its lack of consensual politics and independent judiciaries. And it’s a reminder that a decent outcome may still be possible in Iraq, especially now that the Parliament has endorsed the U.S.-Iraqi plan for a 2011 withdrawal of American troops.
Al Qaeda has not been fully defeated in Iraq; suicide bombings are still an almost daily reality. But it has been dealt a severe blow, which I believe is one reason the Muslim jihadists — those brave warriors who specialize in killing women and children and defenseless tourists — have turned their attention to softer targets like India. Just as they tried to stoke a Shiite-Sunni civil war in Iraq, and failed, they are now trying to stoke a Hindu-Muslim civil war in India.
If Iraq can keep improving — still uncertain — and become a place where Kurds, Sunnis and Shiites can write their own social contract and live together with a modicum of stability, it could one day become a strategic asset for the United States in the post-9/11 effort to promote different politics in the Arab-Muslim world.
What’s sad is that once Bush is out of office the Democrats probably will take credit for our victory in Iraq. They probably won’t call it victory (because that would mean they’d have to admit they were wrong about the war being lost) but they’ll say they ended the war that Bush started and all is now well in the world. Thus denying all the US military personnel who worked so hard in Iraq for victory their due.
















