Posted by
mgraves on Tuesday, December 04, 2007 11:08:20 PM
I heard Sen Obama the other day claim that the U.S. needs to exit Iraq and turn Iraq over to an international force.
There are so many things wrong with this bit of idiocy, one has difficulty acknowledging that Sen Obama (one term senator from Illinois) is a legitimate, major party, Presidential candidate.
Firstly, what international body?
The UN, who has run away from Iraq, opposed the second Gulf War from the start, and was complicit in Saddam's bribery scheme?
Perhaps NATO, who attempted to refuse Turkey missile defense prior to the war and who now has one member, Turkey, standing on the edge of invading Iraq?
The Arab League, with it's dedication to terrorism and tyranny?
The war in Iraq was at its most international at the start. The war effort is gradually becoming more limited--the U.S. and Iraq will prove to be the last men standing by the end of next year. Other nations do not have the same interests at stake in Iraq as the U.S., and therefore, naturally, do not feel responsible for the outcome in Iraq. Certainly, every nation has an interest in the safety that a responsible Iraq would provide--as opposed to a vacuum into which non-state actors can swarm--but most European nations are focusing on short-term attempts to placate their growing Muslim populations.
Secondly, what responsible international force is not largely made up of U.S. military?
None. Nothing against the Dutch or the Poles, but they lack the political will, personnel, logistical capability, training, and experience necessary to lead such a force.
Nations, such as the PRC, which have the personnel, are not responsible actors and could not be trusted to act in accord with U.S. interests--and why would they, they've got to act in their own interests.
The Brits and the Aussies--while having the trained and experienced troops necessary to lead--currently lack the political will.
Essentially, a call for an international force to take over in Iraq is a call for U.S. military personnel to be led by non-U.S. military personnel. In other words--like the British Tommies of the First World War--lions led by jackasses.
I realize that Sen Obama needs to sound statesmanlike--and calls for international peacekeeping forces is what passes for hard-headed realism on the left--but he comes off like the foreign policy neophyte that he is.