"Let me assure you and repeat what President Obama said, we are committed to Iraq, we want to see a stable, sovereign, self-reliant Iraq," she told a nervous but receptive crowd at a town hall meeting at the U.S. Embassy in the capital.
"We are very committed, but the nature of our commitment may look somewhat different because we are going to be withdrawing our combat troops over the next couple of years," Clinton said.
On her first trip to Iraq as America's top diplomat, Clinton said the country has made great strides despite a recent surge in violence. High-profile attacks this past week primarily targeted Shiite worshippers. More than 150 people, many of them Iranian pilgrims, have died.
It's kind of unnerving that after we've bled at the Iraqis' side these last six years, that Iraqis would be "nervous but receptive." Obviously the Iraqis would be receptive to a message that we are committed to them. But given how eager the new administration has been to reach out to our enemies, it is natural for Iraqis to be nervous.
They are nervous undoubtedly because those dead Iranian pilgrims are probably dead because Sunni Arab terrorists are responsible and would like to get the Iranians to retaliate through their remaining stooges and agents in Iraq. Do that and maybe an uptick in violence will frighten us off, they probably think.
You'd think we'd stick it out and cement our victory. But the reputation of our president is such that our enemies think they still have a shot at pulling out a victory from the jaws of defeat.
It's like the triggers on those suicide bomber vests are a jihadi version of a reset button.
