U.S. Vice President Joe Biden meets with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi in Baghdad, April 28, 2016 (Reuters via video screengrab)
The veep may have poor timing, but when it comes to Iraq, he's the only one in the Obama administration trying to save it.
The sudden trip of Vice President Joe Biden to Iraq this weekend — his first to Baghdad since U.S. troops left in late 2011 — was rudely upstaged by the storming of the Green Zone by angry protesters on Sunday, just after the veep had decamped to Erbil. But while the optics looked ugly, the trip — and focus on righting the ship in Iraq — has long been central to Biden. Since the first days of the Obama White House, Biden has been the president’s point man for what may be the administration’s toughest portfolio. President Barack Obama ran on a ”get out of Iraq” ticket in 2007, although he tried after a fashion three years later to keep some forces on, and now has ordered 5,000 back to support operations against the Islamic State.
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Commentaries, Analysis, And Editorials -- May 3, 2016
Syria conflict: How does Russia view the endgame? -- Scott Peterson, CSM
Aleppo's reckoning: The assault on Aleppo has exposed the shallow foundations of the Geneva peace process. -- James Denselow, Al Jazeera
The ‘bad boy’ cleric poised to be Iraq’s next kingmaker -- Mohamad Bazzi, Reuters
More Biden Failure in Iraq -- Max Boot, Commentary
Defeating ISIS: The Military and Economic Options -- John Graham, Huffington Post
The Arab Implosion Continues -- Walter Mead, American Interest
The Arab media paradox -- Khaled Diab, Al Jazeera
Turkey Doesn't Deserve This Huge Visa Reward -- Con Coughlin, Telegraph
Protests Spread Across Kazakhstan -- Lili Bayer, Geopolitical Futures
Why Russian planes are playing ‘chicken’ with US forces -- New York Post editorial
Interview: In Eastern Ukraine, 'Too Many Troops Willing To Fire' -- Radio Free Europe
The resurfacing of anti-Semitism in Britain -- Niall Ferguson, Boston Globe
Mexico, on the Edge of Now -- Reva Goujon, Stratfor
A Military Coup In Our Future? -- Thomas Sowell, American Spectator
CIA should not have ‘live-tweeted’ Bin Laden raid, critics say -- Elizabeth Koh, McClathcy News
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