Obama denied requests from Iraq for military help against insurgents, sources say, and that was a mistake that is leading to a new civil war.
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Friday, June 13, 2014, 12:15 AM
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MARWAN IBRAHIM/AFP/GETTY IMAGESKurdish forces deploy their troops and armoured vehicles on the outskirts of the city of Kirkuk in Iraq on Thursday. With Al Qaeda-linked Islamist fighters closing in on the Iraqi capital Baghdad, forces from the Kurdish region took control of the disputed northern oil hub of Kirkuk, officials said.
WASHINGTON — President Obama is between Iraq and a bloody hard place.
He was elected largely because he opposed the war he then ended. For months, he rebuffed requests from Iraq for military help against extremists, sources said.
After thousands of American lives lost and billions of dollars spent, he did not want to get re-involved militarily again, said Ken Pollack, an Iraq expert at the Brookings Institution who has close ties to Iraqi officials.
The President, Pollack said, was hoping the sides would talk it out themselves.
In doing so, Obama resembled the former community organizer who felt that calm reason among warring factions would settle grievances.
Pollack had screamed from the rafters about the dangers of the U.S. pulling out combat troops. He predicted a resumption of civil war. Painfully, that looks accurate.
PABLO MARTINEZ MONSIVAIS/APPresident Obama's administration is facing a disaster as violence escalates in Iraq, some experts say.
Thursday brought a shift in the White House view that Iraq's mess is for its government to solve. With events spinning out of control there, he had no choice.
"Based on his history, I suspect he will try to do the rational thing and speed up military assistance short of troops," said journalist David Maraniss, author of the best Obama biography.
Obama can frustrate with his own sense of time and an aloof manner. But he's a man of logic and common sense. So help will be on the way, even if late.
But it’s clear, Pollack said, that this is "a President who doesn't want to admit he made a mistake."
Obama’s initial view appeared to be this: Diplomacy among the factions could bring a reconciliation that would give the Sunnis confidence in a Shiite government they feel discriminates against them.
AFP/GETTY IMAGESMilitants are seen firing heavy machine guns during alleged fighting in the northern Iraqi city of Samarra on Monday.
It's a tough task complicated by an Al Qaeda branch known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. It's overrun Mosul, the second-largest city, and is taking other cities as images of violence and looting are seen worldwide.
Those images have special relevance to thousands of Americans who remain in Iraq. They include our embassy personnel, private security contractors and private military advisers who assist the fumbling government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki.
Those Americans are at "a high risk for kidnapping and terrorist violence," according to a travel warning issued Wednesday by the State Department.
Pollack argues that the U.S. must come up with a hefty military package to help the government stop, even roll back, insurgents' military gains.
But, in return, the Maliki regime must agree to bring the Sunnis back into government and give them a real share of the economic spoils. In addition, he must limit his own power and agree to "completely rebuild an Iraqi army, as we did before he destroyed it."
STR/APRefugees flee the city of Mosul toward Kurdish-controlled Arbil.
That would mean a package of drone strikes, massive military training and manned fighter strikes, along with additional weapons such as Apache helicopters and small arms.
"Iraq is so far gone, half measures won't do," said Pollack, who believes that Obama, the former law school academic, has made a basic intellectual mistake.
"It's a willful denial of the historical record," he said.
"There is a well-established body of scholarship on civil wars, what makes them end and what makes them recur. That's why I said you couldn't pull all the troops out."
But it’s clear, Pollack said, that this is "a President who doesn't want to admit he made a mistake."
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