Posted on 08/28/2021 4:15:28 PM PDT by elpadre
The Taliban’s rapid takeover and America’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan have set alarm bells ringing in nearby Iraq, the other “forever war” the US plans to exit within this year.
Both parallels and differences between Baghdad and Kabul have been aired by Iraqi politicians and pundits in recent days, with many expressing shock and bewilderment at the suddenness of Washington’s Afghan collapse.
“Nobody expected this kind of pull out,” Bayar Mustafa from the University of Kurdistan-Hewler in Erbil told Asia Times. “They even left all their personal weapons behind. What kind of withdrawal is that? It’s a big failure for the US.”
President Joe Biden is also now the third US leader in a row to support the end of American “forever wars”, promising on July 26 that “In Iraq… we’re not going to be, by the end of the year, in a combat mission.”
At the same time, the administration in Baghdad has many similarities to the one that just collapsed in Kabul, with Iraq still a highly fragile state 18 years after the US-led coalition first invaded and occupied the country.
These similarities include a central government that lacks national authority while being plagued by allegations of corruption, sectarianism and incompetence.
At the same time, both Baghdad and Erbil – the capital of Iraq’s Kurdish-controlled north – have received colossal amounts of military and financial aid from the US and its allies since 2003.
Yet, Iraq’s largely Western-trained security forces remain divided, with their loyalty and effectiveness often questioned – similar to the US-trained Afghan National Security Forces that quickly crumbled after US troops withdrew.
(Excerpt) Read more at asiatimes.com ...
Putin, Xi, and Iran thank Biden.
“..Meanwhile, US military support for Kurdish forces has also raised the ire of a second neighbor: Turkey.
Ankara alleges some of these US-backed forces are linked to Turkey’s Kurdish separatist guerrillas – the PKK – and has demanded the US cease helping them.
Turkey has also launched military operations against alleged PKK bases in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq – known as the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG).
Ankara also maintains a string of military “observation posts” inside Iraqi territory.
“If the US leaves, Iraq and the KRG will be even more vulnerable to Turkey and Iran,” says Ala’Aldeen.
Indeed, “Turkey is already testing the reaction of the US and the international community,” Mustafa says, referring to an August 17 Turkish drone strike on a clinic in Sinjar in north-western Iraq.
The strike killed a senior Iraqi Kurdish official Ankara links to the PKK, along with at least two others....”
Forever War....
I first thought it must have been around before but then most references say the term was from the Joe Haldeman SF novel The Forever War (1974).
I talked with him several times because he often came to the midwest areas’ science fiction conventions. I would have never guessed they would someday mention his book when they used that phrase.
He was a Vietnam vet and went on to write a lot of popular novels and stories.
After the Afghanistan debacle, this should do Biden and Democrats in for 2022.
Photo of Arabs...
Quiet. Joe has a plan.....
Aw, the plan is about switching from rice pudding to tapioca and about something to replace the prune juice that isn’t working. Darn it.
joe does not know how to pull out. just ask dr jill
We should leave Iraq and Syria. The issue is how to do it. The American way is to go out strong, blowing to Hades anyone who annoys us during the withdrawal. The Biden way is to slink away like a simpering rat. The Deep State is trying to use the Afghan debacle as a justification for the Forever Wars. That is a trap we should not fall for.
I agree. We are being played.
what the hay?
The pundits this morning are saying we’ll have to go back in Afgani land, but we’re going to do it without a base in Iraq?
Oh, all right, never mind.
PING!
When can we impeach the Democrat Party?
Not as long as they control the voting machines.🙄
Get out now folks. (Biden may be out of office by the end of the year)
If you are a civilian get out now.
We need to leave Iraq & Syria. They do not want us there. Leave.
The BIDEN WAY is to drop your weapons, Pi$$ and s#it your pants and run for the border! The civilians are on their own and the Devil take the hindermost!
Biden’s Generals don’t want civilians to get in the way of their running.
THE BIDEN WAY. Soon to be replayed in Iraq!
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