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Iraq
U.S. Planning to Slash Iraq Embassy Staff by Half
2012-02-08
BAGHDAD -- Less than two months after American troops left, the State Department is preparing to slash by as much as half the enormous diplomatic presence it had planned for Iraq, a sharp sign of declining American influence in the country.
What did we expect?
Officials in Baghdad and Washington said that Ambassador James F. Jeffrey and other senior State Department officials were reconsidering the size and scope of the embassy, where the staff has swelled to nearly 16,000 people, mostly contractors.

The expansive diplomatic operation and the $750 million embassy building, the largest of its kind in the world, were billed as necessary to nurture a postwar Iraq on its shaky path to democracy and establish normal relations between two countries linked by blood and mutual suspicion. But the Americans have been frustrated by what they see as Iraqi obstructionism and are now largely confined to the embassy because of security concerns, unable to interact enough with ordinary Iraqis to justify the $6 billion annual price tag.
It's almost like we could use an Army or something...
The swift realization among some top officials that the diplomatic buildup may have been ill advised represents a remarkable pivot for the State Department, in that officials spent more than a year planning the expansion and that many of the thousands of additional personnel have only recently arrived.
Posted by:Steve White

#10  I thought it may have been sink trapped due to an acerbic comment.

Oh my dainty ears!
Posted by: gorb   2012-02-08 22:12  

#9  Apologies on behalf of the staff that it wasn't carried over.

No need. I thought it may have been sink trapped due to an acerbic comment.
Posted by: Shimble Guelph5793   2012-02-08 19:42  

#8  "greed, impatience, corruption, incompetence, lies, and blame"

Sounds like Washington, Bob. :-(
Posted by: Barbara   2012-02-08 19:36  

#7  I'd expect no less from trying to help any Islamic country: greed, impatience, corruption, incompetence, lies, and blame.
Posted by: Fat Bob Unotch3711   2012-02-08 19:34  

#6  As a general principle, if you submit an article after about 3pm ET, please set the date to the next day and the time to 00:00. That way it will be included in the rollover, and get maximum reader exposure.

Posted by: trailing wife   2012-02-08 19:05  

#5  BTW, I submitted this article yesterday.

Yes, very late in the day.

Apologies on behalf of the staff that it wasn't carried over.
Posted by: Pappy   2012-02-08 18:23  

#4  Why would the Iraqis want to "knock Iranian snot"? Most the Iraqi leadership took refuge in Iran, are their coreligionists and received their training from Iran. Suck Iranian snot, maybe.

BTW, I submitted this article yesterday.
Posted by: Shimble Guelph5793   2012-02-08 16:19  

#3  Silk purses and sows' ears, Dr White.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2012-02-08 16:09  

#2  No, the Iraq army could not 'knock the snot out' of the Iranian army right now. The Iraqi military can handle day to day security, for the most part, and do relatively straight-forward security ops.

However, they do not have the strategic abilities, planning, logistics and combat support to sustain independent, division level ops in the field. From what I've read, I don't think they can do brigade ops.

If we had stayed in Iraq for twenty years the Iraqi army would have developed along the same lines as the ROK army and have become quite capable. But we aren't there and (I believe) the Iraqis won't develop their country to do this.
Posted by: Steve White   2012-02-08 15:32  

#1  The bottom line was that when we went in, we assumed that Iraq would be the new Germany, and HQ for AFRICOM, from where we could police the whole region, working off the Cold War model with Iran taking the place of the Soviet Union.

That idea fizzled for any number of reasons, leaving us with a white elephant. While Obama is criticized for pulling out of Iraq, the bottom line is that there is not a heck of a lot we could do there anymore, it's expensive as hell, and we've given the Iraqis every chance, so they're on their own.

They have no excuse left when they foul up.

On the plus side, they are at least taking a law and order point of view, hanging a lot of deserving scoundrels they couldn't with the US there. That in itself shows a more realistic attitude.

Their military, while unfinished, is showing great signs of being able to function on its own, and it is based on the stable US model. So if Iran gets ambitious towards them it will have the pluperfect snot kicked out of them.
Posted by: Anonymoose   2012-02-08 12:15  

00:00