Just an FYI, but the battle is spreading. Extremist forces are attacking the Karachi airport in Pakistan (its main transportation hub) even as we speak.
At what point, do we all stop living collectively in the "who-is-to-blame past" and instead fixate on the present, and determine what our long term interests really are in the region and what we will do (or not do) to protect them. Who are going to ally with or abandon in the near future? The decisions President Obama makes (or doesn't make) in the coming days and weeks could determine the fate of generations in the region and beyond.
These questions are more interesting to me than endlessly re-debating congressional votes and ill-fated presidential decisions that got us in the mess in the first place.
Lets endlessly debate current congressional votes and ill-fated presidential decisions instead! (because these are are the only ones we might have a chance of influencing)
However, the Obama Administration was in active negotiations to extend that 2011 date for several more years, and there are MANY conflicting accounts of that ill-fated negotiating process (who was at fault, who was operating in good faith, etc.) which ultimately led to the failure of what many of the affected parties thought was a mutually beneficial goal of reducing U.S. military presence over a longer period of time. Obviously, from the Maliki government's point of view, making last second (and denied) requests for air-strikes from the U.S. this last week, would have been more likely granted if that agreement was still in place.
To what extent, if any, was the failure of the United States and the Maliki government's inability to come to terms on a status of force agreement in 2011 responsible for the current situation?
Just an FYI, but the battle is spreading. Extremist forces are attacking the Karachi airport in Pakistan (its main transportation hub) even as we speak.
At what point, do we all stop living collectively in the "who-is-to-blame past" and instead fixate on the present, and determine what our long term interests really are in the region and what we will do (or not do) to protect them. Who are going to ally with or abandon in the near future? The decisions President Obama makes (or doesn't make) in the coming days and weeks could determine the fate of generations in the region and beyond.
These questions are more interesting to me than endlessly re-debating congressional votes and ill-fated presidential decisions that got us in the mess in the first place.
Lets endlessly debate current congressional votes and ill-fated presidential decisions instead! (because these are are the only ones we might have a chance of influencing)
However, the Obama Administration was in active negotiations to extend that 2011 date for several more years, and there are MANY conflicting accounts of that ill-fated negotiating process (who was at fault, who was operating in good faith, etc.) which ultimately led to the failure of what many of the affected parties thought was a mutually beneficial goal of reducing U.S. military presence over a longer period of time. Obviously, from the Maliki government's point of view, making last second (and denied) requests for air-strikes from the U.S. this last week, would have been more likely granted if that agreement was still in place.
To what extent, if any, was the failure of the United States and the Maliki government's inability to come to terms on a status of force agreement in 2011 responsible for the current situation?