Still Yakin' Iraq With Mr. "Suck. On. This."

The “Mustache of Understanding,” as Atrios calls him, opined as follows yesterday on the Op-Ed page of the New York Times, looking into some magical vision of the future (here, and I also posted here)…

BAGHDAD, Aug. 25, 2012 — President Obama flew into Baghdad today on his end-of-term tour to highlight successes in U.S. foreign policy. At a time when the Arab-Israel negotiations remain mired in deadlock and Afghanistan remains mired in quagmire, Mr. Obama hailed the peaceful end of America’s combat presence in Iraq as his only Middle East achievement. Speaking to a gathering of Iraqi and U.S. officials under the banner “Mission Actually Accomplished,” written in Arabic and English, Mr. Obama took credit for helping Iraq achieve a decent — albeit hugely costly — end to the war initiated by President Bush. Aides said Mr. Obama would highlight the progress in Iraq in his re-election campaign.

First of all, if President Obama were actually dumb enough to do anything to imitate Dubya in this fashion, he should be immediately voted out of office (and somehow I’m sure that he has figured that out).

Continuing…

Remember: Transform Iraq and it will impact the whole Arab-Muslim world. Change Afghanistan and you just change Afghanistan.

I think here that Little Tommy Friedman has inadvertently crystallized his thoroughly warped view of the legitimate fight we must wage against terrorism (that is, the one fought by grownups in which we work with international agencies of law enforcement and actually obey national sovereignty and the rule of law).

“Transform” Iraq and you “transform” only Iraq, which is not a realistic option to yours truly at this point, any more than we are likely to “change” Afghanistan either. And please spare me the brainless bromides about how holding those beliefs somehow dishonors the sacrifices of our military; the utterly spineless and nationalist-crazed politicians in this country who sent the fine men and women in our services on the horrific fools errand in Iraq, thus ignoring the legitimate fight in Afghanistan, did that much better than I ever could.

But of course Friedman is right about these things, because Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told him so...

“The most dangerous thing that would threaten others is that if we really create success in building a democratic state in Iraq,” said Maliki, whose country today now has about 100 newspapers. “The countries whose regimes are built on one party, sect or ethnic group will feel endangered.”

Maliki knows it won’t be easy: “Saddam ruled for more than 35 years,” he said. “We need one or two generations brought up on democracy and human rights to get rid of this orientation.”

If this election comes off, it will still be held with U.S. combat troops on hand. The even bigger prize and test will be four years hence, if Iraq can hold an election in which multiethnic coalitions based on differing ideas of governance — not sectarianism — vie for power, and the reins are passed from one government to another without any U.S. military involvement. That would be the first time in modern Arab history where true multisectarian coalitions contest power, and cede power, without foreign interference. That would shake up the whole region.

Yes, let’s figure out Afghanistan. But let’s not forget that something very important — but so fragile and tentative — is still playing out in Iraq, and we and our allies still need to help bring it to fruition.

“Four years hence,” huh? Seems that Friedman has graduated from “six more months.”

So, according to Friedman, we’re supposed to stay in Iraq as long as it is “fragile and tentative,” as in this story, which tells us the following…

Baghdad, Iraq (CNN) -- At least 30 Iraqi children riding in a bus were among the 160 people killed in Sunday's twin car bombings in Baghdad, the Interior Ministry said Monday.

At least 540 people were wounded in Sunday's attacks, the deadliest in the capital in more than two years, the ministry said.

One of the bombs exploded outside Baghdad's governorate building, the other outside the Justice Ministry. The bombs detonated in quick succession about 10:30 a.m., officials said.

The children were packed in a mini bus that was outside the Justice Ministry building, a ministry official said.

Plumes of smoke billowed from the sites as victims fled, some with blood streaming down their faces. The streets were strewn with debris, including charred cars and chunks of concrete. Some government buildings and others in the area were heavily damaged.

Among the wounded were three American security contractors, the U.S. Embassy said, declining to provide further details. The area struck is close to the heavily guarded "Green Zone," which houses the embassy.

And I think it’s a bit ironic that, on the day that Friedman pontificated on Iraq, this post was written by blogger Meteor Blades over at The Daily Kos about the estimated 4.2 to 4.7 million Iraqis that fled the country after the war started; an Iraqi official estimates that only 32,000 families have returned, many because their passports permit only a return as opposed to citizenship in Syria or Jordan (or the U.S., which has, as of September 30, admitted some 30,000 Iraqi refugees, most of these in the past 15 months). The post delves into the hardship faced by those who have sought refuge elsewhere.

Also, this tells us the almost incomprehensible fact that…

After years of haggling, Iraq's political leaders have yet to reach agreement on a hydrocarbon law that determines how oil profits will be divided among the country's competing factions -- a plan that is necessary to revive an energy sector that has suffered from years of under-investment -- and a steep drop in oil prices from $147 per barrel last July to less than $65 today.

How on earth are those in charge of Iraq supposed to be able to share political power when they can’t even share their oil wealth (curious to me that Friedman has nothing to say on that)? And speaking of oil, I thought this was illuminating about the pre-war plans to plunder Iraq’s reserves, another journey once more through a Bushco nightmare.

And because the economy is driven by the price of a barrel of oil, we learn the following (here)…

BAGHDAD, June 17 (Reuters) - The Iraqi government has proposed a $70 billion plan for rebuilding the country's war-shattered infrastructure, but will ask companies to accept at least a five-year delay in payment for the projects.

A draft law drawn up by the cabinet and expected to be sent to parliament for approval includes $25 billion in investment in housing, $17.8 billion for agriculture and $8 billion for the transport sector, government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said on Wednesday.

However, the funds needed for the projects are not available in the Iraqi government's budget because of a fall in oil prices from last year's record high of more than $147 per barrel.

The authorities therefore plan to finance the construction through credit, direct investment or in a partnership between public agencies and private companies, Dabbagh said in a statement.

The government will pay off the projects five years or more after their completion, depending on individual agreements Dabbagh said.

All of this is a consequence of what I could euphemistically call the “magical thinking” of our political-media-industrial complex on Iraq, notably led by Friedman among other suspects, which has brought us to this still-largely-irresolute state (here is another example).

The only thing that will “transform” “the whole Arab-Muslim world” is our exit, and the only “prize” I care about is seeing all of our service people safely home, tending the wounded, burying the dead, and honoring their sacrifice by ruthlessly holding to account those who, in their ideological cowardice, led them into the hell of Mesopotamia in the first place.