Quote:
Originally Posted by spence
He inherited the illusion of a stable Iraq, an illusion set by the de-bathification strategy set by Bush.
The stability was not an illusion. It was understood that underlying problems existed such as those caused by the de-baathification overkill and the desire of the Shia to replace or eliminate Sunni power over Iraq and Kurdish suspicion and desires to be free of dominance by either. And that it would take time, perhaps a generation or more to acculturate Iraqis to a more cooperative, democratic, society. And it was understood, at least by the military, that it was too soon to pull out our troops. The surface peace needed to be kept until old grievances could be forgotten and new ways of living together could be accepted.
Whether or not we should have invaded Iraq, pulling out too soon made all our sacrifices meaningless, worthless, and invited the return of chaos not only to Iraq, but to the Middle East.
I think the hard part is that Obama for good or bad has really inherited several global mega-trends that are nearly impossible to control. We can influence and shape but they have to play out on their own.
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Gosh, I thought he was the President of the U.S., not the world. He actually inherited all that global mega-trend stuff? Well there is still hope that Obama can stave off and reverse the global mega-trends since they are not totally impossible to control. Just, as you say, nearly so.
On the other hand, if they have to play out on their own, then he really didn't inherit them. I mean you don't inherit something if you don't own it.
But, if he actually did inherit them, and can't control them, maybe he's just not up to the job.