Foreign Affairs: Omar Al-Nidawi: How PM Nouri Maliki Lost Iraq

Source:Foreign Affairs

It would be easy and perhaps even tempting to blame crisis going on in Northern Iraq and the fact that it is now under control by Islamic terrorists on George W. Bush and Dick Cheney when they were President and Vice President. But the fact is both President Bush and Vice President Cheney have been out of office for over five years now. And Iraq was fairly stable when they left office with a competent federal government.

George Bush and Dick Cheney deserve a lot of blame for what happened in Iraq and their mishandling of that war during the six years we were over there during their time in office. But the fact is Iraq is now under the control and responsibility of the Maliki Administration which is what Iraq wanted. And when Iraqi troops fail to even bother to try to defend their nation against rebels when they were trained to fight for their country. Its kinda hard to say that is somehow the United States fault or to blame it on one president.

The blame goes to Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki and his corrupt dictatorial administration and his failure and unwillingness to unite his country. And what he's done instead is try to centralize the power in his own office instead of reach out to the different diverse groups in that country. And has been left with forces that aren't willing or able to defend and fight for their own country and instead walked away when given the opportunity to defend their country. And as much as the American Neo-Cons want to blame President Obama for the fall of Northern Iraq they should first look at the corrupt Iraqi government that they backed.