The continuing risk of Iraq

ARTICLE: Iraq Restricts U.S. Forces, By Ernesto Londoño and Karen DeYoung, Washington Post, July 18, 2009

Major restrictions suddenly announced by al-Maliki's government to curtail U.S. military activities.

The strict application of the agreement coincides with what U.S. military officials in Washington say has been an escalation of attacks against their forces by Iranian-backed Shiite extremist groups, to which they have been unable to fully respond.

If extremists realize "some of the limitations that we have, that's a vulnerability they could use against us," a senior U.S. military intelligence official said. "The fact is that some of these are very politically sensitive targets" thought to be close to the Shiite-dominated Iraqi government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

There has long been the fear inside Iraq that we're leaving behind 3 armies: a Shia-dominated Iraq Army, the Sunni militias, and the Kurds' pesh merga.

Apparently, there is a privileged fourth, previously thought to be sufficiently grounded by al-Maliki.

Comments

[joe Michels]

If this is what the Iraqis want that is their choice. We need to respect that. We don't need our forces to be easy targets so I believe it is not time to begin significant withdrawals.

We've won with the Iraqis and now it is up to the Iraqis to manage their own country. I suspect the US will be bolstering Iraq for decades to come, with financial, civil and military support.

[Tom Barnett]

I grant all that.

The fear is that we're being set up as easy targets that cannot respond--unsustainable.

[hof1991]

Better for them to do it badly themselves than for us to do it well for them (yes I know that isn't original). These splintering forces weren't going to go away, no matter how long we stayed. Time to take the training wheels off and let them skin their knees, however painful that it for all concerned.