A recipe for failure

Not buying it, Barry.

Mr Barack Hussein Obama declares victory and announces the complete withdrawal of all US forces from Iraq.

I have seen a lot of tin-eared, cack-handed moves, but even for Mr Soetoro this takes the biscuit.  He's desperately trying to spin this as a triumph and the Guardian is boasting that this puts paid to the Neocon strategy, but that will only work if Mr Dunham and company have total control of the media, which they don't.   The fact is that the US commanders asked to keep at least 14,000 troops in the country and that any withdrawal would be offset by maintaining US bases in country.  However, an inexperienced US president and his inexperienced Secretary of State executed negotiations with the Iraqi government that were so inept that the Americans were lucky not to lose the homeland in the bargain and were asked to leave in toto.

None of this is surprising.  In fact, it's quite to form for Mr Obama.  He's already played the same song in Libya.  Look at his record: Refusing the go after Colonel Khadaffi, then trying to hide behind the pack, violating US law by refusing to seek congressional approval, failing to provide any US interest to justify his actions, claiming that it was purely a humanitarian mission and that removing Khadaffi was never the goal except that it turns out that it was, having "days, not weeks" become eight months, and then ending up with NATO acting as the air support for a load of rebels we know nothing about–except that they've just adopted Sharia as the law of the land.  Now that Khadaffi ends up with the 9 mm pension and Iran has the Best Christmas Present Ever to look forward to, The One has the gall to strut about with his a tinfoil sword and a cocked hat three times too large as if he was the Duke of Wellington.  More than that, his supporters have abandoned any pretence of legality and declare that Might Makes Right.

I was never too fond of Mr George Bush's penchant for nation building.  I thought it was an unnecessary  distraction from the more vital task of destroying the enemy.  It would have been far better if the Coalition had appointed military governors, gone after Iran and Syria in force, and told the Iraqis and Afghans in private that, as with the Germans and Japanese, they'll get self rule when we're convinced they can be trusted and not before.  For all that, Mr Obama makes Bush's strategy look Churchillian by comparison.  If I was this lot, I would stay very quiet because this is all going to come back to bite Barry very hard in some place very soft and sensitive.

Update:  Smart diplomacy reaps its dividends.