Obama orders total U.S. withdrawal from Iraq; Iran rejoices

President Obama has decided to play into Iran's hands and risk the dearly-bought victories of American arms in Iraq by totally withdrawing from the place by the end of the year. The reason, sources say, is an inability to reach agreement with the Iraqi govenment to grant the kind of legal immunity to American forces routinely given them in every other country in which the United States has a continuing military presence.

It should be said in the president's defense that even under George W. Bush, the positon of the United States has always been that American troops would leave if the Iraqis didn't want us there. The failure of the Iraqi government to agree to an an arrangement which is a given in countries in which the United States has an ongoing military presence can well be seen as a vivid indication that the Iraqis apparently don't want us there very much.

Obama's decision, according to Time's Fareed Zakaria, is a major victory for Iran. Zakaria is anything but alone in his assessment. Even Hillary Clinton used the occasion to issue a largely empty warning to Iran not to take advantage of the decision.

Mitt Romney says that “President Obama’s astonishing failure to secure an orderly transition in Iraq has unnecessarily put at risk the victories that were won through the blood and sacrifice of thousands of American men and women. The unavoidable question is whether this decision is the result of a naked political calculation or simply sheer ineptitude in negotiations with the Iraqi government."I lean toward the latter. Doubtless the president had the political benefits of withdrawing from an unpopular war in the back of his mind, but this administration has established its ineptitude in the realm of diplomacy quite nicely in the past three years. Besides, I'm not quite enough of a cynic not to believe that the impact on the deficit was a major factor. Despite its cost morally and strategically, the decision will save the Federal government billions.

Obama campaign aide Ben LaBolt cynically charged Romney with a willingness to leave American troops in Iraq "without identifying a new mission." The mission, of course, is to ensure that the Iraqis themselves are able to deal with Iranian interference and domestic extremism before leaving them to their own devices- a condition American commanders in the field, who were described as "livid" when the plan was first rumored a few months back, do not believe to have been met.

Mr. Obama's opponent in the 2008 election, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz), put it well:

Today marks a harmful and sad setback for the United States in the world. I respectfully disagree with the President: this decision will be viewed as a strategic victory for our enemies in the Middle East, especially the Iranian regime, which has worked relentlessly to ensure a full withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. It is a consequential failure of both the Obama Administration -- which has been more focused on withdrawing from Iraq than succeeding in Iraq since it came into office -- as well as the Iraqi government.

“I share the desire for all of our troops to come home as quickly as possible. But all of our military commanders with whom I have spoken on my repeated visits to Iraq have told me that U.S. national security interests and the enduring needs of Iraq’s military required a continued presence of U.S. troops in Iraq beyond 2011 to safeguard the gains that we and our Iraqi partners have made. I am confident that no U.S. commander of any stature who has served in Iraq recommended the course of action that has now been taken.

“Nearly 4,500 Americans have given their lives for our mission in Iraq. Countless more have been wounded. Through their service and sacrifice, the possibility of a democratic state in the heart of the Middle East has been opened to millions of Iraqis. I fear that all of the gains made possible by these brave Americans in Iraq, at such grave cost, are now at risk.”

"A hermful and sad setback for the United States in the world." That about sums it up.