Memory Holing History in Iraq

While this is an interesting article on Biden's role in the rise of ISIL, it is not true that the cause of the rotting Iraqi security forces by 2014 was caused by the government's authoritarianism and sectarian nature.

Yes, Obama and Biden backed Maliki as a substitute for an American presence. That was an error on two issues.

One, we shouldn't have focused on backing "our" man. We should have focused on bolstering the system of rule of law that allows for free elections and confidence that another free election will take place on schedule.

And two, given our first mistake we didn't back the man we selected and so made the situation worse.

In the absence of an American presence to balance and resist Iran (and to detect the rot), the Iraqi government fell back on authoritarianism and sectarianism to ensure loyalty in the face of Iranian pressure. Maliki was not our main problem in Iraq.

Also, this lead off to another point is nonsense: Biden's "vote for a resolution authorizing military force in Iraq, which George W. Bush used to justify his invasion [emphasis added] ..."

No! That AUMF was effectively a declaration of war by a bipartisan majority of Congress committing America--not Bush--to war. There was no twisting of the resolution to justify attacking (you have to see Obama's Libya War for twisting a resolution to start a war). That was the purpose of the resolution! It was the means to make good on the Clinton-era law that provided that regime change in Iraq to replace the WMD-seeking Saddam with a democracy was our national policy.

War was obviously the intent at the time in 2002 and you are a moron or partisan history-rewriting hack if you reject that. (Of course, never forget the healing power of "and.")

Of course, this is all part of the odd inability to recognize victory in Iraq.

Anyway, I guess the article is mostly interesting as a hit piece on Biden to clear him out of the way of more progressive candidates for the presidency.

[More on Biden's disastrous role. And my advocacy for sending the man responsible for Iraq policy implementation to Iraq until the crisis could be resolved. Note this was less than a week after ISIL exploded in portions of Anbar, Iraq at the beginning of January 2014 and six months before the catastrophic collapse].