U.S. keeping Iraq at arm's length with troops out

By Helene Cooper and Thom Shanker

New York Times

WASHINGTON -- As Iraq erupted in recent days, Vice President Joe Biden was in constant phone contact with the leaders of the country's dueling sects. He called the Shiite prime minister and the Sunni speaker of the Parliament on Tuesday, and the Kurdish leader on Thursday, urging them to try to resolve the deepening political crisis.

And for the United States, that is where the U.S. intervention in Iraq officially stops.

Sectarian violence and political turmoil in Iraq escalated within days of the U.S. military's withdrawal, but U.S. officials said in interviews that President Barack Obama had no intention of sending troops back into the country, even if it devolved into civil war.

The United States, without troops on the ground or any direct influence over Iraq's affairs, has lost much of its leverage there. And so the latest crisis, a rapid descent into sectarian distrust and hostility that was punctuated by a bombing in Baghdad on Thursday that killed more than 60 people, is being treated in much the same way that the United States would treat any other diplomatic emergency abroad.

Obama, his aides said, is adamant that the United States will not send troops back to Iraq. At Fort Bragg, N.C., on Dec. 14, he told returning troops that he had left Iraq in the hands of the Iraqi people, and in private conversations at the White House, he has told aides that the United States gave Iraqis an opportunity; what they do with that

opportunity is up to them.

Though the president has been heralding the end of the Iraq War as a victory, and a fulfillment of his campaign promise to bring U.S. troops home, the sudden crisis could quickly become a political problem for Obama, foreign policy experts said.

"Right now, Iraq, along with getting Osama bin Laden, succeeding in Libya, and restoring the U.S. reputation in the world, is a clear plus for Obama," said David Rothkopf, a former official in the administration of Bill Clinton and a national security expert. "He kept his promise and got out. But the story could turn on him very rapidly."

For instance, Rothkopf and other national security experts said, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki of Iraq is swiftly adopting policies that are setting off deep divisions among Sunnis, Kurds and Shiites. If Iraq fragments, if Iran starts to assert more visible influence or if a civil war breaks out, "the president could be blamed," Rothkopf said. "He would be remembered not for leaving Iraq but for how he left it."

Already, Obama is coming under political fire. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said that Obama's decision to pull U.S. troops out had "unraveled."

Source: http://www.mercurynews.com/nation-world/ci_19616147?source=rss

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