Failed efforts and challenges of America's last months in Iraq
As President Obama touts the withdraw of forces from Iraq as fulfilling a promise made to Americans, the administration has fallen short on some goals that threaten that nation’s overall stability, The New York Times reported in an in-depth look at America's last months in the Middle Eastern country.
Among the shortcomings pointed out in the Times report: Iraq is not stable, there exists a power vacuum and it is a nation not reliable internationally.
White House officials portray the exit of troops as a final success of the military mission there, and cite as one example the fewer number of Iraqi civilian fatalities compared with 2006, when the war was at its height, the Times reported. And today, Iraqis look to politics, not violence, to resolve differences, the Times reported, citing U.S. officials.
“Recent news coverage of Iraq would suggest that as our troops departed, American influence went with them and our administration shifted its focus away from Iraq,” the Times quoted Antony Blinken, the national security adviser to Vice President Joe Biden, as saying in a speech in March. “The fact is, our engagements have increased.”
Source: The New York Times
