Victory or Defeat?
Thursday, December 01, 2011
"This whole notion that the surge is working is fantasy." - Senator Joe Biden, November 28, 2007...
The Vice President of the United States of America is in Iraq hosting ceremonies celebrating the sacrifice of our troops and officiating the end of our presence in that country.
U.S. Vice President, Joe Biden gives a speech during the Government of Iraq ceremony in the Al Faw Palace at Victory Base Complex, Iraq, Dec. 1, 2011. Photo by Master Sgt. Cecilio Ricardo.
A few weeks ago, Columnist Charles Krauthammer (the other Hammer) put up an op-ed about "Who Lost Iraq?":
...Three years, two abject failures. The first was the administration’s inability, at the height of American post-surge power, to broker a centrist nationalist coalition governed by the major blocs — one predominantly Shiite (Maliki’s), one predominantly Sunni (Ayad Allawi’s), one Kurdish — that among them won a large majority (69 percent) of seats in the 2010 election.
Vice President Biden was given the job. He failed utterly. The government ended up effectively being run by a narrow sectarian coalition where the balance of power is held by the relatively small (12 percent) Iranian-client Sadr faction...
Krauthammer kindled a discussion and other opinions appeared (some interesting ones below but your mileage may vary):
Brett McGurk thinks it's not an end but a beginning...
Michael Moran talks about China and/or Iran being the victor(s)...
Jay Brockman argues that, since all of the war's objectives were met, there is no losing Iraq (even though he blames the Neocons for losing it)...
CNN has an interesting opinion piece on Obama getting the hang of war...
Peter Feaver at Foreign Policy asks whether we are leaving Iraq responsibly...here and here
On the Today Show, VP Biden said, "We're not claiming victory. What we're claiming here is we've done our job the administration said it would do. To end a war we did not start, to end it in a responsible way and to leave in place the prospect of a trained military, a trained security force under democratic institutions where the disparate parties for the first time are actually working together."
Many believe that we let Iraq go (and possibly to spin out of control) in order to satisfy the (broken) campaign promises of the Obama-Biden campaign.
Looking at that quote and the photo above, I have a hard time not believing that they are right.