MORE FROM HUFFPOST
MORE FROM HUFFPOST
nouri al-maliki
How is it even possible that the jihadist situation is even more screwed up now than it was right after the 9/11 attacks? Because two successive presidencies, seeming and mostly real political opposites, have pursued deeply incoherent and ultimately profoundly counter-productive strategies.
The current protests in both Lebanon and Iraq indicate that the era of sectarian conflict is potentially taking a backseat for more unified nationalistic demonstrations.
Jeb Bush was attempting to deflect attention from George W. Bush and his Iraq policies. Instead, he reminded us not only who was in charge of the Iraq War and withdrawal, but how eerily similar the two brothers are about so many things.
WHAT'S HAPPENING
WHAT'S HAPPENING
Frankly, no one named Bush should be proposing anything in the Middle East. Especially a Bush who has 17 of 21 formally named geopolitical advisors who are alumni of the Bush/Cheney administration.
Anyone who thinks the war in Iraq was a "pretty good deal" should be nowhere near the command structure of the United States military, ordering our men and women in uniform into harm's way, lest they send our men and women to sacrifice their lives for another neoconservative failure.
It seems that the 12 years' crescendo of politicization, sectarianism and mismanagement has finally reached its climax. The mid boiling temperature of Iraq's sweltering summer and daily terrorist attacks did not stop the masses from coming out and saying enough is enough.
Finding the right path in Syria and Iraq is proving elusive, particularly for a U.S. president who is joined at the hip to the notion that he has pulled out of Bush's "dumb" war. The U.S. may have left Iraq, but Iraq has yet to leave the U.S.
The Obama Administration's announcement that it is sending several hundred additional advisors to Iraq is consistent with America's failed policy in the country.
One of the main prerequisites to defeating ISIS in Iraq is to determine the political future of Sunni Iraqis. The Sunnis are not prepared to make all the needed sacrifices only to benefit the Shiite government in Baghdad, which they reject and despise even more than ISIS. The Obama administration must begin, concurrently with the fight against ISIS, to negotiate the future status of the Sunni Iraqis.
