It still feels to me as if we've made Iraq just safe enough for its politicians to be obstinate, corrupt or reckless on our dime. Even the moderate Kurds must have developed some kind of death wish, allowing their radicals to simultaneously provoke both Turkey and Iran and risking the island of real decency the Kurds have built in the north.
...without resolving the cold war in the Middle East that now pits America on one side and Iran and Syria on the other, I'm not sure you can stabilize Iraq, Lebanon or Israel-Palestine.
Letting everyone know that we're not staying there forever would be the best way to catalyze both local and regional negotiations and give us something we don't now have: leverage. Just letting Iraq recede into the back pages does not serve our interests.
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Tom Friedman Column
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