Former Reagan advisor and Nationa Security Agency Director Lt. Gen William Odom gave a sobering assessment of the situation in Iraq last night on Hardball. Responding to a question from Chris Matthews on whether we should leave Iraq, Odom responded as follows:
The longer we stay, the bigger mess we create. Once we invaded, we set in motion a group of forces that inexplicably has taken us to this point. We can‘t change that by staying longer. We can make it worse.
We essentially invaded for other peoples‘ interests without understanding it. We made Iraq safe for al Qaeda, therefore, we really encouraged or pleased Osama bin Laden.
The Iranians detested Saddam‘s regime. He had invaded them and fought them for eight years. Therefore, seeing Saddam and his regime overthrown greatly pleased the Iranians.
It has also created a situation inside Iraq, fragmentation, that‘s leading to the creation of a regime that will almost inexplicably will be an Islamic republic much closer to Iran than to the U.S. or anyone in the Arab world.
Odom aslo challenged the administration’s claims that withdrawel would result in handing over Iraq to al Qaeda:
It may not be so bad for us. One of the things you can almost be certain would happen if we leave, al Qaeda will be thrown out. Al Qaeda does not operate in Kurdistan today. The Kurds don‘t like them and won‘t let them in.
The Shiites barely tolerate them because they are helping the Sunnis. And the minute we‘re out, you can bet the Sunnis will find al Qaeda uncomfortable bedfellows and they will be facing the Shiites in a very serious deadly confrontation.
And so when that is settled, al Qaeda has no place in Iraq. So it will be—we will get rid of al Qaeda that way. It might be a better solution than what we had with Saddam. We just don‘t know. We have to wait and see how that government works out.
Odom is not a dove and he’s not a liberal. He’s just one of many foreign policy experts, conservative and liberal, who recognize the mess that this president has created b invading Iraq. He does not have a political axe to grind. He’s simply giving his honest assessment, which is consistent with John Murtha’s argument that we have to withdraw.
