Al Qaeda in Iraq Returns After U.S. Withdrawal

Thanks Baracky.

At the Wall Street Journal, "Iraqi Distress Signals" (via Google):

The Obama Administration last year made little serious effort to keep a smaller contingent of noncombat troops in Iraq beyond the 2011 withdrawal deadline. An American presence had calmed sectarian fevers and gave Mr. Maliki more confidence to share power.

But the White House priority was a total withdrawal it could point to as a promise kept to the political left as the re-election campaign neared. Now the U.S. has little leverage as the factions compete for power and self-preservation in a region where Iran now counts for more than America does.

Iraq has to find its own democratic way, and the U.S. can't serve as mediator forever. But Mr. Obama took the U.S. out of the country cold turkey and has since shown no interest in a crucial Middle East country where so much American blood was shed. The last ambassador left Baghdad in early June, and the Administration has no replacement on deck.

The abandonment of Iraq is consistent with the Administration's response to the 17-month conflict in Syria. President Obama says "the tide of war is receding," but you wouldn't know it from the arc of instability that is forming from Lebanon, through Syria, Iraq and into the Persian Gulf.

God, he's been just a horrible president. I can't wait to send the dude packing, and his fat-ass hypocrite wife MOoch.