Whether he says so or not, President Obama now owns the issue of Iraq. The withdrawal of combat troops on some arbitrary timetable was his idea. Yet his failure to secure the diplomatic side of this calculus will cost his administration dearly if Iraq continues down this path, or worse, slips into a sectarian civil war.
If we’re not careful, what will result is a return of American forces to the country to clean up a radioactive mess.
To succeed in Iraq and truly prepare the nation for the democracy we all want, the president must do three things:
First, he must pressure President Talabani to form a new government by any means necessary. It’s not enough to coax and prod from an ocean away. Obama must take a personal role in bringing the various factions together and striking a compromise that sets a regime in power. The future legitimacy of elections in Iraq (a staple of a democracy anywhere) hangs in the balance.
Second, the Pentagon must keep combat troops in the region, if not in-country. Already, the State Department is signing contracts with private security companies that will send over 7,000 civilians to protect these foreign workers. What signal does that send to the Iraqi people? Anyone remember Blackwater? Keep some combat brigades there, continue the training, and send a psychological threat to the enemy that it can’t ignore - just as we have in Germany and South Korea for over a half century.
Finally, Congress must not cut funding at this critical time for the Iraqi army. As a conservative, I loathe more spending. But the right, short term investment will help stand up a sturdier, lethal army and ensure we’ll never need to send our troops back to lend a hand.
The president punctuated his speech last week by saying, “Our combat mission is ending, but our commitment to Iraq’s future is not.”
Those words will ring hollow if he fails to complete and accomplish his own mission of securing that nation’s political infrastructure and rule of law. Despite all of our efforts Iraq continues to struggle since the toppling of Saddam Hussein. Obama knows that. What must be done now doesn’t fit nicely into some political ad, but it’s the right course of action for the peace we all want.