Who do you think is responsible for our failure in Iraq?

I know a lot of you here lived it and don't need to be reminded, or told what you experienced. But for people like me who had the good fortune of serving during more peaceful times. This documentary by PBS is excellent and seems well balanced: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/losing-iraq/

President Obama is responsible. We knew the faults and failures of the Iraqi government and military while there and when the decision to withdraw was made. You can not hand off a responsibility to a known irresponsible party and then blame them for the failure. Iraq was a broken society. We knew in the past that it took generation to develop an ally. Look at Japan, Germany, and Korea.

Umm, the Iraqi's........?

Do you include Apophis on that list?

isis the Iwaqis and the Hakewi Indians.

This is very similar to Vietnam discussions I remember when I was growing up.

We didn't really 'lose' in Iraq, so failure doesn't 100% apply. By the end of 2011 we were trying to get a new security agreement approved with Iraq. The Iraqi PM, in typical middle east fashion, kept haggling US diplomats. Very similar to how Hamid Karzai haggled the US right up till the last Afghan presidential elections. He would first make a move or gesture like he wanted us there, then take it back the next day, then go back to near agreement. This is how Middle Eastern people are, they love haggling and drawing out decisions because they want to see how much they can control you.

But in Iraq's case, I suspect the Iraqi PM didn't think the US was actually serious about the end of 2011 being a deadline. So, I'm sure he was shocked when the troops simply packed up and left their bases at the end of 2011. He absolutely thought he could haggle the US with trifling tactics, so when we left, it put him on the spot. He wanted to be free of the US, but liked our military support.

So, I don't really think the military had anything to do with it. This was a political decision really by a small circle of people next to Obama and the Iraqi Prime Minister. The average joes on both sides had nothing to say about it.

What failure??? The war was a MASSIVE success! The war was WON in less than 3 months. That's as textbook as it gets!!! It is the 12 years of the following "PEACE" that have been a huge disaster! Peace is not the soldiers job......the war was!!

Iraq was always bound to be unstable given the minority but more powerful Sunnis conflict with the disenfranchised but majority Shias. Iraq was formed this way by the British to balance the Iranian influence but they didn't appreciate the issues it would cause. So my opinion is that Bremer strategy was ill informed and knee-jerk but the real responsibility lies with the British who organized the country.

Iraq is essentially the vietnam of our time. All I can say is that this is what happens when politicians try to run a war...

Bremer was highly criticized by military leaders at the time regarding firing the entire Iraqi Army. That created the insurgency as surely as anything else. Things were stabilized later and the battle became manageable. Pulling out gave up the high ground in the Global War on Terror and flushed all advances and gains down the pipe. We're still in Germany, Japan and Italy 70 years after defeating them in WWII. Those countries are among the most peaceful and prosperous on earth not in spite of US but because of US and the brilliance of General Marshall and the commitment made to the Marshall Plan. We need to return to Iraq and then STAY. We need a Middle East Marshall Plan and a commitment from our Middle East friends for their support of such a plan. If we don't lead, no one else will. Hooah!