Over the last 24 hours, I’ve spent a lot of time remembering Charles Krauthammer. As I’m sure you know, Dr. Krauthammer wrote a letter saying goodbye to his fans and colleagues.
One of my favorite Krauthammer moments is from December 2008, or in the last moments of the Bush administration.
He wrote “Historic Progress in Iraq“:
True, the war is not over. As Gen. David Petraeus repeatedly insists, our (belated) successes in Iraq are still fragile. There has already been an uptick in terror bombings, which will undoubtedly continue as what’s left of al-Qaeda, the Sadrist militias and the Iranian-controlled “special groups” try to disrupt January’s provincial elections.The more long-term danger is that Iraq’s reborn central government becomes too strong and, by military or parliamentary coup, the current democratic arrangements are dismantled by a renewed dictatorship that abrogates the alliance with the United States.Such disasters are possible. But if our drawdown is conducted with the same acumen as was the surge, not probable. A self-sustaining, democratic and pro-American Iraq is within our reach.
Sadly, the drawdowns were not conducted with the same acumen as was the surge, to the say the least. We would have been a lot better if President Obama had listened to Dr. Krauthammer during his presidency.
We will miss him a lot.
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