Iraq — VOICES for REASON

Andrew Sullivan at The Atlantic reflects on news that Iraq’s politicians are still wrangling over details of the country’s election law — and even now, after the much touted U.S. surge, cannot settle their differences. He writes:

The surge was supposed to create the space necessary for the sectarian factions to come together. That was its critical definition of success. So far: surge fail. And if the parties cannot hammer out an agreement now, with 120,000 US troops still in country, what chance once the US leaves?

The situation is actually far worse than Sullivan’s rhetorical question implies. Hype about the so-called success of the surge has enabled people to cast out of mind the fact that Washington’s mission in Iraq was a fiasco. Read the rest of this entry »