Iraq is why this American president has done everything he can to avoid getting involved in the Syrian conflict.
And Iraq is why most Americans agree with him on this issue.
The American people are exhausted by the emotional, physical and financial burdens placed on them by the war they fought in Iraq and the ongoing one in Afghanistan.
Dithering Obama?
It’s clear from listening to the debate here that the American people are convinced that doing anything militarily in the Middle East is the first step down a slippery slope that will inevitably lead to their young men and women fighting another war in another ungrateful country.
President Barack Obama’s critics have accused him of over-learning the lessons of Iraq, which they believe has led to a dithering, policy-less approach over Syria.
That is unfair because there has been a policy. Post-Iraq, that policy has been “we are not getting involved”, and under this president that is unlikely to change.
So Mr al-Maliki might get some new weapons from his meeting with Mr Obama.
And he will no doubt be told in private he needs to rule for all his people – not just those who share his faith or point of view.
He’ll probably smile and agree and then ignore the advice while gladly accepting whatever aid he might get.
The world knows America has lost its appetite for foreign adventures. That is understood most keenly in the Middle East.
The credible threat of “or else” has all but disappeared from US foreign policy.
If the new ‘strong men’ emerging from the post-Arab Spring era, such as Mr al-Maliki and Egypt’s General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, have a certain spring in their step these days, it’s because now is not a bad time to have authoritarian tendencies.
These men know there’s nobody around at the moment who really wants to check them.
The headline is incorrect…it should read America left Iraq and radicals are now killing it….the problems of Islamic sectarianism are not the fault of the USA…the USA provided Iraqis with freedom..if they stupidly want to use that freedom as an excuse to kill other Muslims then the USA cannot be blamed…the radical extremism of some parts of Islam is the real problem and all Muslims must find a way to eliminate this extremism from their countries…that is the same problem happening in all the ” Arab Spring” countries as the Muslim world wakes up to eliminating dictatorships and trying to restart a government…Islamic sharia principles of religion are not a good template for modern civilized democracy…when Muslims get pass that problem there may be peace…