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A bipartisan effort doomed U.S. venture in Iraq

While Democrats and Republicans squabble in Congress, they do deserve bipartisan credit for one stunning achievement: the defeat of the United States in Iraq. The willful blindness and strategic stupidity of the Bush administration led us into the Iraq War and the postwar disaster. The 2007 troop surge (and Gen. David Petraeus) created a slim […]

Trudy Rubin writes for the Philadelphia Inquirer:

While Democrats and Republicans squabble in Congress, they do deserve bipartisan credit for one stunning achievement: the defeat of the United States in Iraq.

The willful blindness and strategic stupidity of the Bush administration led us into the Iraq War and the postwar disaster. The 2007 troop surge (and Gen. David Petraeus) created a slim hope that Iraq might yet become stable, but that hope was dashed by the mistakes of the Obama team.

Iraq today is a broken country, where sectarian strife is re-emerging and al-Qaida is seeking a comeback. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki acts like an autocrat and marginalizes Iraqi moderates. He also depends for his political survival on Tehran's blessing.