Compare and contrast President Obama speaking at the end of US combat operations in Iraq on Tuesday and Tony Blair talking of his continued belief in the rightness of the operation on television last night. Tony Blair, of course, was responsible for sending in the troops, which Obama was not.
Nonetheless, the contrast between Obama and Blair's view of the world is striking. Obama doesn't go in for high rhetoric about a war which his government is now ending. His view of the consequences of the invasions is pithy and direct: "A war to disarm a state became a fight against an insurgency. Terrorism and sectarian warfare threatened to tear Iraq apart. Our relations abroad were strained. Our unity at home was tested." The US has learned, he argued, the cost of foreign intervention and to reduce its ambitions. Partnership with a nation in charge of its own destiny, not a reworking of the whole Middle East, is now what it seeks, in Afghanistan as in Iraq. The US needs to put the chapter behind it.
Read Full Article »