Political Reconciliation
Posted at 1:15am on Mar. 15, 2008 Iraqi Political Reconciliation: The Petraeus Take
By Pejman Yousefzadeh
Personally, I am happy to have General Petraeus put pressure on the Iraqis to work to achieve greater political reconciliation and to preserve the advances made under the surge. So I welcome his comments and his "stern" warnings to the Iraqis. At the same time, I am sure he knows just how hard it is for the Iraqis, after decades of Ba'athist tyranny, to create a functioning democracy and so when he makes his statements on the issue of political reconcilation, I know that they are backed up by a healthy sense of perspective.
This differs, of course, from all of those who simply want to declare the surge a failure, say that political reconciliation is impossible and engage in a precipitous withdrawal that will undermine our long term security interests. General Petraeus and those of like mind issue critiques in good faith and with the hope of achieving real success on the political reconciliation front while at the same time pursuing what has been an exceedingly successful counterinsurgency strategy. Others simply want to go home and do not appear to care much what happens when Iraq descends into complete chaos in the aftermath of a precipitous withdrawal.
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