Iraq: Three-Dimensional Chess in the Dark
Our future in Iraq is being settled, but no one there or here knows all the details or approves of what they do know.
The status of forces agreement (SOFA) will establish principles for a continued US military presence in Iraq beyond the expiration of the UN mandate at the end of this year, but as a July deadline approaches, the end game is as murky and confused as the start of it all.
“We have reached an impasse,” Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said last weekend, “because when we opened these negotiations we did not realize that the US demands would so deeply affect Iraqi sovereignty and this is something we can never accept.”
Back here, Congressman Bill Delahut, Chairman of a key House Subcommittee, is complaining that “Congress has received, to be polite, minimal information from the Bush administration on the agreement.”
Last summer Andrew Cordesman described Iraq as ‘three-dimensional chess in the dark while someone is shooting at you.” Now the shooting has subsided somewhat, but no one has turned the lights on.
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One Response to “Iraq: Three-Dimensional Chess in the Dark”
Look on the bright side. We wanted a democracy there, despite a >60% Shia population and predictable results. We got it.
But how dare think they can run their country and manage their resources for their own benefit rather than ours?