Iraqis flying apart without US glue

Rowan Scarborough:
The Iraqi government lost more than a fighting ally when the last U.S. troops left the country Sunday.
Since the 2003 invasion, U.S. service members had woven themselves into the fabric of Iraq’s power structure - its politicians, soldiers, village elders and tribal sheiks.
Army and Marine Corps officers acted as small-town mayors. They had authority to spend nearly $4 billion over seven years on local construction and humanitarian projects via the Commanders Emergency Response Program.
U.S. military personnel - whether sergeants, platoon leaders or brigade commanders - helped settle major political disputes in Baghdad and brokered talks at local levels among various tribal chiefs.
Their power base: as many as 170,000 U.S. troops, M1 tanks, advanced jet fighters and the American military uniform.
Now all that persuasive power is gone. Left to fill the void are the State Department and a limited diplomatic presence at the U.S. Embassy and two stations outside Baghdad.
It took only one day after the U.S. exit for Iraq’s Shiite Muslim majority to move against the highest-ranking Sunni, accusing the country’s vice president of terrorism and provoking a government crisis in the process.
“Our pullout is not just the number of brigades, it’s not about the numbers,” said retired ArmyMaj. Gen. Robert H. Scales, who has been toIraq as an independent adviser and has interviewed returning soldiers.
“The Army had a postgraduate course in how to kill insurgents and work with the people,” he said. “They became toward the end the glue that tied together these factions in Iraq whose natural condition is to spiral apart.
“The Iraqis relied on us not just to kill insurgents and train the Iraqi armyor do nation-building; they relied on us as an excuse to stay together.”
... 
There is more.

It is becoming pretty evident that Obama's failure to negotiate a status of forces agreement that would let US troops remain in place was a major screw up.  It was also a screw up for Maliki who is seeing his government quickly fall to pieces.  This is a waste of the investment we had in Iraq and it does not appear that the State Department is capable of filling the void.

Obama seems more inclined to honor a bad campaign promise than to lookout for the national security interest of this country.

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