Iraq: Out of the desert into Mosul (closed)

[Bill Moore]

There seems to be no sense of ownership of Iraq from the US political elite - there's a lot of buck passing and electoral calculus, but no sense of responsibility.

This would be fine if the US had no pretensions to global leadership; but it does - and US politicians go on as if the rest of the World hasn't figured out the geo-strategic incompetence of the US ruling elite.

The rest of the World understood the US was definitely going to be less relevant economically as the years went by (that was clear after the 2008 financial crisis). What is a revelation is how quickly America's geo-strategic relevance is being eroded.

America's great advantage over the Chinese in most parts of the developing World is its military, but Iraq demonstrates the limitation of that military, but most importantly the failure of imagination of the policy makers wielding that tool.

So where does US go - after Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq?

Part of President Obama's platform when running for office was his anti-Iraq war stance, but what he seems to fail to recognize at this time is we're looking at an entirely new threat that has nothing to do with our former premise for invading Iraq (WMD). He seems to be trapped in the past. Action is clearly needed in Iraq, and while this may be an overused phrase, it isn't inappropriate. The terrorist organization(s) in Iraq are a "clear and present danger" not only to Iraq, but our interests in the region and to our homeland.

Don't count the U.S. out yet, I think you'll see a major change in our worldview and how we approach it when the next President assumes the office, regardless of whether that person is a democrat or republican.

Relative to China we do have a competitive advantage militarily, but I think a lot of China's economic might is built on a very flimsy foundation. The fact that we're clawing our way back from the economic crisis we went through, even with ineffective political leadership in the White House and Congress, demonstrates our system is pretty resilient. I doubt China could recover from a similar crisis of the scale we went through.