Friday, June 13, 2014

Our Legacy in Iraq: Will Statebuilding Ever Recover?

George Packer, author of "Assassins Gate" and the excellent "The Unwinding" (see my review post below) thinks we might have had a chance under Obama to keep a stabilizing force in Iraq.  But in the end neither Washington nor Baghdad were too interested. http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2014/06/iraq-extremists-mosul-american-invasion-legacy.html  The concept of statebuilding might never recover from this debacle.

Yesterday the Iraqi Security Forces were shaking off their daze and holding the line around Samarra, north of Baghdad.  Air strikes nailed ISIS positions around Mosul.   Several reports of Iranian troops coming in to help. 

If this is the Arab Spring, I'd hate to see what their winters look like.

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