
Take your pick, the political weather is cloudy and tending toward storms in both Iraq and America.
(Reuters)
BAGHDAD: General Raymond Odierno took command of U.S.-led forces in Iraq on
Tuesday, faced with the challenge of ensuring that security gains do not
unravel at a time when American troop levels are being reduced.
Odierno
replaced General David Petraeus at a ceremony presided over by Secretary of
Defense Robert Gates, who said the two generals had formed an "incredible
team" during the deployment of 30,000 extra U.S. troops to Iraq last year
in the so-called "surge."
Odierno
served as the second-ranking U.S. commander in Iraq for 15 months until
February.
"He
knows that we are at a pivotal moment, where progress remains fragile and
caution should be the order of the day," Gates said of Odierno. The
ceremony took place in one of Saddam Hussein's former palaces, now part of a
sprawling U.S. military base.
Handovers are a time of reflection and I aim to
reflect on a war I’ve never supported and criticized for nearly a year prior to
the Bush plunge from the high-board.

Near enough. Nearer than we need ever be again, if
we are to prevent the unraveling of our national fiber. Much lip-service is
given to coming together, to being the nation’s uniter rather than divider. But
the fact is that ‘deciders’ are not all that likely to unite.
So, we came with a flawed strategy to Iraq and that
complicates our decisions over what is best for that nation, as well as our
own. I reflect, I opine. I am an opiner. Everyone seems to be these days . . .
no license required.
Odierno
and Petraeus came together last year to implement a new counter-insurgency
strategy that helped drive violence down, allowing Iraq to begin seeking
foreign investment to rebuild after decades of war and UN sanctions.
Petraeus
leaves behind a very different Iraq from the one he faced when he took over in
February 2007, when Iraq was on the brink of civil war.

The Sunni minority ran Iraq until we overthrew
Saddam Hussein and ushered in the majority Shiites. Remember our American Civil
War? You can free the slaves, but you damned well better not walk off the stage
after having done so. Exactly what we did in Lincoln’s time and it spawned a
hundred years of lynchings, carpetbaggers, Jim Crow and segregation.
We somehow feel Iraqis are different in their ethnic
ambitions because we don’t speak their language, move them like pawns on a
chessboard and fail to understand their culture (which outdates ours by 4,000
years). Winston Churchill famously (and accurately) said, “America always makes the right decision…. after they have exhausted all
other possibilities.”
The coming confrontation between Sunni and Shiite is
inevitable, but it will be bloodier and more destructive of the national fabric
because of decisions we made in desperation.

How do you understand that, when you sent everyone
home over at the State Department who knew what the hell was at risk?
That’s a hatred of some proportion, an aging cheese
of a hatred or, as Saddam himself might have said (before the trap was sprung
at his hanging) the mother of all hatreds.
Those who harbor that hatred have very little interest in George Bush or his
war, but every interest in his weaponry. And therein, the plot thickens.


Iraq's
Shiite-led government will also soon take control of Sunni Arab tribal units
that joined forces with the U.S. military to fight Al Qaeda. Some analysts fear
the tribal units, which include many former Sunni Arab insurgents, could turn
their guns on the government if their demands are not met.
Which will be ever afterward known in Baghdad as National Getting Our Ass Handed to Us Day.
But America will be out, China will have the first shot at the oil, nearly
5,000 kids will have been killed under false pretenses, Cheney will be either
on the rubber-chicken circuit or under indictment, Bush no longer able to
chain-saw the Constitution and what’s left of the fabric of America searching for what went
so terribly wrong.
But not very hard. There’s a failing economy to deal with.
Iraq will quickly become last week’s story—except for Iraqis. They will likely
remember for the next fourteen centuries. Islam has a long memory.
My guess is blanket presidential pardons will be
served like after-dinner mints on the way out the door.
Can a president do that? Probably. This is a
president who gets away with stuff.
__________________________________________________________
Media comment:
- US News and World Report-Four Challenges Petraeus Leaves Behind for His Successor in Iraq
- New York Times-Odierno Succeeds Petraeus in Iraq
- Associated Press-Bush: 'We are at war with extremists'
- Guardian-UK-The conflict continues
- Irish Times-Ireland-Violence surges in Iraq amid political stalemate as Gen Petraeus departs
John McCain has made it clear that if he is elected he will attack Iran for Israel. See the future consequences of this in the fascinating new historical novel “Clash of the Gods” which is now on www.amazon.com and www.clashofthegods.com. Sarah Palin, of course, is an Evangelical who thinks we have to destroy all the ‘infidels’ in the Middle East to make way for the Second Coming.
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