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United States policy today is focused on maintaining the status quo in Iraq, offering unqualified support for Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki in the name of stability. But the status quo is inherently unstable.
The Obama administration had three years to push Iraqis toward genuine national reconciliation, the most critical component in securing a stable Iraq over the long term. The White House failed to leave behind a representative government that respects the concept of power-sharing and the rule of law under the Iraqi Constitution. Instead, the central government headed by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is riddled with sectarian and authoritarian elements that were bound to capitalize and expand after the departure of U.S. forces from Iraq.
'Iran and Turkey now have more influence and they are taking advantage of what the U.S. has sacrificed for in Iraq.'
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Will the Iraqi government be prepared to take over?
On Thursday, June 23, 2011 ISW Deputy Director Marisa Cochrane Sullivan testified before the Committee on Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Middle East & South Asia regarding the future of Iraq.
The United States’ position in Iraq recalls Henry Stimson’s warning: “The construction of a stable peace is a longer, more complex, and greater task than the relatively simple work of war-making.”
This paper treats one discreet, but not inconsequential, aspect of building partner capacity—that is, creating police and law enforcement systems.
Marisa Cochrane Sullivan discusses the coming Iraq drawdown with Hearst Media's Nikole Killion.