Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee today that “Iraq is ready to handle security without a significant U.S. military footprint.” The same day, an interesting report emerged in Iran’s state media. Multiple sources confirmed that the commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari, met Iraqi army chief of staff Lieutenant General Babakir Zebari today in Tehran. This is the Babakir Zebari who declared in August 2010 that the Iraqi army would not be “fully ready” to assume control of Iraq’s security until 2020.
Zebari stressed during their meeting that Iraq “must” establish “stronger” ties with the Islamic Republic. Jafari stated that “Despite efforts by the U.S. and Israel, which are the true enemies of the two countries of Iran and Iraq, they have not been able to drive a wedge between the two nations, the two countries, and their armed forces.” Zaberi also met with IRGC ground forces commander General Mohammad Pakpour on Monday. It seems that the Iraqi military does not share Secretary Panetta’s confidence.
— Will Fulton is a research analyst for the Critical Threats Project at the American Enterprise Institute.
Well, that was several trillion dollars well-spent. Still waiting for the NR cover story, "Hey, sorry for cheerleading this pointless, bloody, American-credibility destroying money pit!"
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseHelps to have a non-pansy president who can steer Iraq in our direction.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIf you think things in Iraq would be different if a) George Bush was still president or b) John McCain was president, you don't know a single thing about Iraq. Herman Cain probably knows more about Iraq than you do.
Also, pansy? Really? He killed Osama, which George and Dick couldn't do, because they were too scared to go into Pakistan. Dick and George focused on playing S&M games at Gitmo and pumping up defense contractor share prices, not so much on actually winning the GWOT.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseDid I name Bush or McCain? I have no clue what those two would do in 2011, specifically, because it's impossible for them to be president now. I suspect they would not have thrown Iraq to the wolves like the Pansy in Chief did.
Special Forces, by the way, killed Osama, after our fearless leader couldn't decide what to do right away except sleep on it.
Keep that blood boiling over defense contractor shares, though. Must be nice living in the past decade since Obama screwed up the current one.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAt least Obama didn't prance around in a flight suit like a member of the Village People after "victory".
And Obama authorized the mission, about which I'll again note, that all those super butch Republicans, like George, and DICK, and Rumsfeld, lacked the stones to carry out.
All hat, no cattle, that's a Republican for you.
But by all means, go on believing your Fox News fantasies.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseGood Lord. You typing this junk in junior high study hall? Let me know when you get to Stage 2 thinking.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseYou don't think it's reasonable to assume Bush would honor the SoFA he signed as president that called for U.S. troops to leave at the end of 2011?
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"and pumping up defense contractor share prices"
Was this before or after Bush and Cheney plotted to bring down the WTC towers?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseOther than making some people a lot of money, and killing a lot of other people, can you point to a single concrete achievement of the Iraq War?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseSure, I can. Oliver Wendell Homes's father - a famous polemicist in his own right, said...
"Every now and then a man's mind is stretched by a new idea or sensation, and never shrinks back to its former dimensions"
George Bush, very much by design, stretched the minds of Iraqis (and other Arabs) for the first time in over 5K years of history; and he did it simply with the ubiquitous photograph of young men and even old women holding up a blue thumb with unbridled pride - and with that thumb, people in the Middle East (who weren't Jewish) for the first time experienced the possibility of self-governance.
We have no idea how this nascent democratic movement called the Arab spring will turn out, but it's naive to believe that without Bush's democracy doctrine that manifest itself most viscerally in the Iraq war, there would have been an Arab spring.
If America stays engaged, and continues to fight against regional forces who are invested in seeing the failure of a true democratic movement spread across Arab/Muslim world - much like how America engaged those forces who opposed democracy in Europe in the immediate aftermath of WWII - George Bush will have started something that no one other man was able to: He will have introduced freedom, democracy, religious plurality and basic human rights into a culture where those concepts had heretofore been practiced.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThere used to be a great page, I believe, on the main DoD site that was dedicated to nothing but Iraq news. The positive stories every single day were overwhelming - rebuilding schools, businesses, sewage systems, electrical grids, etc. Don't know if it exists any more, it's been years since I last read it and I couldn't find it after a cursory search. I have no doubt perceptions about our involvement would have changed that stuff had been reported along with everything else.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseRe: "The positive stories every single day were overwhelming..."
Well no, from an Iraqi PoV, this was overwhelming:
External Link
Collateral murder trumps schools, businesses, sewage systems and electrical grids.
That's why the Iraqis hate America and that's why they are throwing us out...
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseLook at this photo:
External Link
If, between that and your Wikileaks ladyboy hero footage, you can't figure out which best represents American soldiers, you have big problems.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseYou're a absolute dope. What images do you think the Iraqis pay attention to? If some foreign country shot up Americans the same way Americans shot up Iraqis, how much "love" would you have for them?
The warm fuzzy pics don't mean squat from the Iraqi PoV. Get it...?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbusePsst - hey bright guy, I know you spend all day long counting gold bars with Dr. Paul, but I directed you to that photo, not Iraq.
Even I can comprehend that everything we do around the world is not bathed in sweetness and light, but the fact that you can't help but slander the entire military every chance you get is pathetic.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI don't slander the military at all. I merely point out that it does what it is trained to do, which is kill and destroy.
And because the American military has done what it does with alacrity in Iraq, the Iraqis hate the United States for it.
Iraq had a taste of America for 8 years and spit it out. If there is an alternative reason, you tell me why...
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI was in Iraq, yes we did good things. However, the Arab mind is pretty good at deluding itself so what we did won't matter. Under pressure the average Iraqi would probably prefer to see American troops knocking on their door at 2 AM than just about anybody else that might show up with a gun, but that doesn't mean they won't rant in the streets about how evil we are and act like we are all murdering crusader rapists.
Hopefully soon they'll find out what it is like when Iranian troops patrol their streets.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAgree, and thanks for your service, brother.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAsk a Marsh Arab.
Oh look, did I get facts in the way of your screed?
President Bush did more for the environment than Presidents Clinton or Obama, just in that act.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseSaying Obama killed Bin-Laden is like saying Nixon took us to the moon.
Wish that was my line.
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