Coming Around
When you look at the information coming out about the new Iraq SOFA and its timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. forces, it’s worth putting it in the context of this pre-war argument between Bush and Nouri al-Maliki. Here’s a January 2007 account:
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had a surprise for President Bush when they sat down with their aides in the Four Seasons Hotel in Amman, Jordan. Firing up a PowerPoint presentation, Maliki and his national security adviser proposed that U.S. troops withdraw to the outskirts of Baghdad and let Iraqis take over security in the strife-torn capital. Maliki said he did not want any more U.S. troops at all, just more authority.
The president listened intently to the unexpected proposal at their Nov. 30 meeting, according to accounts from several administration officials. Bush seemed impressed that Maliki had taken the initiative, but it did not take him long to reject the idea.
Details, of course, differ and there were some problems with Maliki’s proposal from the point of view of operational specifics. But basically back in November 2006, Iraqi political leaders and progressives in the United States alike wanted to see some kind of phased redeployment of American troops out of Iraqi cities and then out of Iraq. Bush, instead, opted for the “surge” strategy and now eighteen months later we’re . . . doing roughly what Maliki wants which is roughly what he wanted 18 months ago which is roughly what progressives have been saying we should do for a log time. To surge proponents, the fact that they are now proposing what we were proposing years ago underscores the success of the surge. That seems a bit curious to me, but if it helps bolster political support for doing the right thing it might not be the worst thing in the world. But still, the proper chronological perspective leaves me wondering what the surge is supposed to have accomplished.
Well over $100 billion has been spent since Maliki’s November 2006 PowerPoint, and lots of America soldiers have been killed or maimed. And now they’re in a position to basically walk through the door that’s been open at least since the midterm elections — one where we leave Iraq not in “defeat” but with a handshake and a pat on the back from the new government, and a determination to cut our losses on an endeavor that never made strategic sense.
24 Responses to “Coming Around”
Register
RSSLogin
Topic Cloud
ArchivesBlog RollAbout Matt YglesiasContact Me
Donate
August 23rd, 2008 at 3:37 pm
“the context of this pre-war argument”
“pre-war” no makey sense.
you mean, mebbe, “pre-surge”?
i know that mccain likes to conflate the success of the surge with the success of the war, but i thought you were more careful, matt.
or do you mean something altogether different?
August 23rd, 2008 at 5:23 pm
“this pre-war argument between Bush and Nouri al-Maliki.”
Um, what?
August 23rd, 2008 at 5:25 pm
“But still, the proper chronological perspective leaves me wondering what the surge is supposed to have accomplished.”
The only thing it was ever meant to accomplish: the appearance that we didn’t “surrender,” “back down,” “cut and run,” “fail,” “lose.”
August 23rd, 2008 at 6:09 pm
Yeah, that plan was in the papers when it came out. It seemed an awful lot like, “Why don’t you folks seal off Baghdad while Badr and JAM finish our ethnic cleansing of the western half of the city?” That’s not exactly the best of solutions.
August 23rd, 2008 at 8:25 pm
Here’s George Packer’s account:
The Shiite-led government has been trying to get American forces out of the way for at least two years. I remember sitting with the Times’ Dexter Filkins in the Green Zone villa of Mwaffaq al-Rubaie, the national security adviser, one night in January, 2006, and hearing the Iraqi government’s plan for the departure of American units from the cities to bases out in the desert, to be followed by a withdrawal of most troops from Iraq by the end of the year. The plan didn’t survive, because a civil war broke out the next month, and by the end of the year Baghdad had been turned into a nightmarish killing field. By then Donald Rumsfeld, who was the main administration voice for a quick handover, was gone, and even President Bush had to admit that his security plan for the city had failed. Thus the surge was born. I was in Iraq again, in January, 2007, when the new plan was put into effect, and once again the Iraqi government tried to orchestrate things so that American units would leave the city.
Why? Because the Iraqi army and national police—infiltrated or dominated by Shiite militias—had the upper hand in the civil war and wanted to finish the ethnic cleansing of Baghdad. General Petraeus and his commanders had another plan: joint Iraqi-American patrol bases all over the city to secure the population and separate the warring militias. The surge came just in time to salvage a remnant of Sunni presence in Baghdad, which is one major reason why Americans suddenly found new allies among former insurgents who not long before had been blowing up our convoys.
The rest is at The New Yorker.
August 24th, 2008 at 4:18 pm
I think surge-ers would say that the difference is that things were so out of hand before the surge that, had we left, chaos would have been the result.
No, thanks to the surge, they might say, we can leave and the Iraqi’s can handle it.
August 24th, 2008 at 6:20 pm
That’s precious: “at least since the midterm elections.”
Yeah, we would’ve walked out with a pat on the back if we’d left before The Surge–rather than with a powerful Sunni insurgency and Mahdi army celebrating in triumph.
I know life is nice in Yglesias’s YuppieWorld, but it ain’t that nice….
March 1st, 2009 at 7:45 pm
cialis
It is the coolest site,keep so!
March 11th, 2009 at 5:13 am
If you have to do it, you might as well do it right
March 14th, 2009 at 5:58 am
If you have to do it, you might as well do it right
xanax
March 22nd, 2009 at 10:40 am
buy viagra online
Incredible site!
April 2nd, 2009 at 5:46 am
Great site. Good info
buy cheap viagra
April 3rd, 2009 at 4:29 am
Very interesting site. Hope it will always be alive!
cheap brand pfizer viagra
April 9th, 2009 at 8:27 am
Excellent site, It was pleasant to me. viagra
April 14th, 2009 at 9:39 am
Very interesting site, Hope it will always be alive!
viagra