| The Battle for Baghdad
Pollack, Kenneth M.
National Interest, September/October 2009, #103, pp8-17
"Iraq has made a great deal of progress since 2006 and the evidence indicates it could make a great deal more. But it is not going to make progress if left to its own devices. If the United States walks away from Iraq or if we are evicted too soon, the old patterns of Iraqi politics will subvert the new patterns of democratization and the country could easily become yet another data point on the academic graphs that demonstrate how pitifully few countries can escape the civil-war trap. In 2002, the United Srates turned away from Afghanistan prematurely to focus on Iraq. The result was a tragedy for us and for the people of Afghanistan. In 2009, we are courting the risk of turning away from Iraq prematurely to focus back on Afghanistan. Should we do so, the result could be a disaster - for us, for the Iraqis, for the entire Middle East and potentially for the world."
Kenneth M. Pollack, a contributing editor to The National Interest, is the director of the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at die Brookings Institution.
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A30/05-09. Posted December 4, 2009
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