Let’s not forget the beast from the sea (Rev 13:10)

  
A reminder of Iraq mess
ROY LEHMAN

I saw the other day where former President George W. Bush’s reputation had been rehabilitated from the 22 percent approval rating he had when he left office to an astoundingly high rate of 52 percent today. I was reminded of the collective amnesia of Americans, which the politicians can always count on to ply them with their propaganda.

Remember back in 2007 when Bush was praised for bringing some stability to his newly minted sovereign nation project of Iraq due to his “surge” of troops into the country? Lost in all that pro-Bush propaganda was the decision of Shiite militia leader Muqtada al-Sadr, playing the long game, to have his militia stand down and the Sunni “awakening” in Anbar province, which was really nothing more than bribes paid to the Sunni leaders of the tribes to Anbar province for some stability.
Then forward to 2008, near the merciful end of Bush’s second term, working with his handpicked prime minister Nouri al-Maliki, (Ayad Allawi couldn’t work due to him being a Sunni in the newly established democracy with a Shiite majority and it turned out Ahmed Chalabi, his prime choice, was aligned with Iran) Bush dodged a couple of shoes as he and Maliki announced that they had achieved an agreement for all U.S. forces to be out of Iraq by December 2011.

This little factoid seems to have gone down the public’s amnesia hole as the “conventional wisdom” in Republican World is that President Barack Obama pulled the troops out too soon, which is a bald-faced lie. To do what the right-wing wanted, leave troops in Iraq, would have meant Obama would have had to countermand the wishes of Bush’s newly minted sovereign nation while putting American military at risk of the Iraqi justice system due to Bush’s and Obama’s inability to negotiate a status of forces agreement with Maliki. Worldwide, America has a SOFA with every host nation to protect our military.

Call it a can of worms or Pandora’s box, but the instability in the Middle East was birthed by Bush. ISIS is a risk to the region and Obama is wise to try to get the regional powers to handle the situation as ISIS is nothing more than a minimal threat to America’s security.

Obama’s injecting more troops into Iraq is not the right answer as the Western world has no answers to a 1,200-year-old religious schism. More Bush-style bribes for stability in Anbar might work again. Everybody up for trading stability in Iraq for new infrastructure in the U.S.?

On another “bright” note, Bush’s brother Jeb, possible Republican nominee for president, thinks we should be sending more troops to Europe.

I’m hoping Jim Webb joins the presidential race. He is a logical thinking, pragmatic leader.
The writer lives in Woolwich.