• News
  • Celebrities
  • Finance
  • Crypto
  • Travel
  • Entertainment
  • Health
  • Others

Iraq’s ‘Political System Is Now Functioning,’ Mr. President?

President Obama was pretty subdued when talking about Iraq last night at his press conference last night. “We just saw an election in Iraq that went relatively peacefully and you get a sense that the political system is now functioning in a meaningful way,” Obama said about last weekend’s provincial elections. “Relatively” is doing a lot of work in that sentence.

Anbar Province, the former hotbed of the Sunni insurgency, is locked in a contentious inter-Sunni struggle over who in fact won the election, complete with competing accusations of vote fraud and intimidation. This New York Times piece gives a sense of the combustibility of the situation:

Mr. Taha, the winning candidate from Anbar, who was one of the front-runners on Mr. Mutlaq’s slate there, has served as a sports and youth adviser for the region’s governor and was, he claimed, a protégé of Saddam Hussein’s son Uday during the 1990s. (That the governor is affiliated to the Iraqi Islamic Party shows how convoluted politics have become in Anbar and elsewhere.)

He said his supporters had been threatened and beaten by police officers loyal to the Islamic Party — before the election and after. “People will be eliminated,” Mr. Taha, 37, warned.

And yet Taha is, by his own admission, hiding in a Green Zone hotel, “afraid” to go back to Anbar.

Now for a premature meta-point. For years, former President George W. Bush misrepresented the depth and nature of violence in Iraq so as not to jeopardize his political standing and his desired course for the occupation. People didn’t like being lied to. Bush’s legacy and his party paid the cost.

This is a lesson Obama should really take to heart. Obama doesn’t want to be in the position of misrepresenting reality in Iraq so as to jeopardize a very desired troop reduction and then withdrawal. The same goes for progressives more broadly. Withdrawal is guaranteed by the Status of Forces Agreement. It doesn’t need a rosy portrait of the situation in Iraq. A million things can go wrong in Iraq. Nothing will go even close to right without a clear-eyed assessment of what the situation actually is. Frankly, if Bush gave the statement that Obama did last night, I suspect progressives would reject it as a sign of detachment from reality.

Discussion & Comments (0)

    Recent Articles

    • Things You Should Know about North America

      Things You Should Know about North America

      Get to know more about North America.

    • Eurovision 2010 Paula Seling Unpredictable Contest

      Eurovision 2010 Paula Seling Unpredictable Contest

      Paula Seling's experience on the Eurovision stage led her to declare that "Eurovision is an unpredictable contest". Which may explain the success of the young Lena from Germany, about whom the predictions before the event did not offer much chances for victory.

    • VIPRow.me - The Best Sports Streaming Website Today

      VIPRow.me - The Best Sports Streaming Website Today

      Have you ever contemplated creating a user-friendly site dedicated to sports-related free live streaming channels?

    • Learn How To Download, Install, And Use The Xnxubd 2022 Frame App

      Learn How To Download, Install, And Use The Xnxubd 2022 Frame App

      XNXUBD 2022 Nvidia users are able to watch thousands of videos and other contents online. XNXUBD 2022 Nvidia New is a piece of software that enables people to watch videos online without having to pay for memberships. On a graphics card, the XNXubd also provides some of the best gaming and virtual reality experiences.

    • Xvideostudio Video Editor Apk Free Download For Pc Full Version In 2022

      Xvideostudio Video Editor Apk Free Download For Pc Full Version In 2022

      A new edition of the Video Editor Apk for xVideostudio.Video Studio has all the latest features, including support for multiple video download formats in HD, FHD, and even 4K resolutions.

    • 9 Best Lotion For Masturbation - Popular Choice For 2022

      9 Best Lotion For Masturbation - Popular Choice For 2022

      Masturbation is a common activity for men and women. It's a natural and risk-free way to explore your body, experience pleasure, and release sexual tension.

    • Reasons Why You Need To Stop Watching Movies From Sflix

      Reasons Why You Need To Stop Watching Movies From Sflix

      Without having to sign up or pay anything, you can watch movies online for free with SFlix. It has more than 10,000 movies and television shows.

    • Coi Leray Mom And Dad's Family History & Wife, Explained

      Coi Leray Mom And Dad's Family History & Wife, Explained

      Coi Leray Collins (born May 11, 1997) is a rapper from the United States. Leray started publishing songs to SoundCloud in 2014, and in 2018 she released her breakthrough track "Huddy" as well as her first mixtape, Everythingcoz.

    • Listen And Download Music On MyFreeMP3 For Free

      Listen And Download Music On MyFreeMP3 For Free

      Are you in a bind and looking for a place to obtain free mp3 songs? Never again will you need to bother, since this article has everything necessary to obtain your solution. Download free music from MyfreeMP3.com, one of the world's most popular websites.