The Iraq mess

Believe it or not, I'm going to side with Kirsten Powers here: "Iraq crisis is not Obama's fault."  This guy rose to the Presidency on his promise to get out of Iraq and America voted for him twice.  America tried to stabilize the country and set up a power-sharing government among the competing religious and regional factions, paid for with American lives and treasure.  Maybe it's time to say "no more":

Everyone told Maliki that to keep his country together and peaceful, he had to build relationships with Iraq’s Sunnis and Kurds. As Slate’s Fred Kaplan explains, Maliki ignored the advice. He didn’t just neglect the Sunnis. He mistreated and alienated them. That’s a big reason why a Sunni extremist group, known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, now controls much of Iraq’s territory and is advancing on Baghdad.

William Saletan concludes: "For nearly a decade, we tried to manage Iraq. What we got was dysfunction. Maybe it’s time to let Iraq learn to manage itself."