Back in the 1960s, during the heated national debate over the Vietnam War, Sen. George Aiken of Vermont suggested that Washington simply declare victory and bring the troops home.
This, essentially, is what President Obama is doing in Iraq.
Yet, just as in Vietnam, no victory has been won. And, just as Aiken’s advice worked to the advantage of the Hanoi communists, Obama’s policy is creating a real strategic opening for the Iranian mullahs.
Certainly Obama’s surprise announcement last Friday that all 40,000 remaining troops will leave Iraq by the end of the year wasn’t based on any strategic assessment.
It was predicated solely on the failure of Washington and Baghdad to reach agreement on giving US troops immunity in order to keep them there after the expiration of the current US-Iraq deal.
Fact is, like most everything else emanating from the White House, this was primarily a political decision, undertaken in advance of next year’s election.
And to allow the president to claim, as he quickly did, that he had fulfilled a major 2008 campaign promise to end the war.
But the war, in practical terms, has been over for some time — notwithstanding that most Iraqi officials want to see a sustaining force of at least 10,000 Americans, according to Sen. Joe Lieberman.
And with good reason.
Then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates, speaking last May, said keeping US troops in Iraq past Dec. 31 would send “a powerful signal.”
To whom exactly? “I think it would be reassuring to the Gulf states,” said Gates, adding: “I think it would not be reassuring to Iran — and that’s a good thing.”
That’s putting it mildly.
An American Enterprise Institute report last spring found that Iran’s “use of proxy military groups” poses “the most immediate and serious threat to Iraqi security.”
It’s a threat that the Iraqi government is not remotely equipped to defend against on its own — and won’t be for years.
So how does Team Obama plan to corral Iran’s ambition?
Well, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has vowed that “America will stand with our allies and friends, especially Iraq, in defense of our security and interests.”
Bet Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is quaking in his boots over that.
Actually, he’s probably wondering how he got so lucky.
Because, as Sen. Lieberman rightly charges, this withdrawal “hands a crucial strategic opportunity to the fanatical regime … that threatens us all.”
Not to mention putting “at greater risk all that so many Americans and Iraqis fought, sacrificed and, in thousands of cases, gave their lives to achieve.”