TIME.COM : Iraq War : limits of American military power - Sharply diminished U.S. influence throughout the Middle East - Iraq War Weakened the U.S. in Middle East - no-show by Iraq’s President and Prime Minister at departure ceremony

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Tehran’s strategic position vastly enhanced by the elimination of its most dangerous enemy, Saddam Hussein - Iran is now a stronger nation in the region.

TIME is a wonderful Magazine, Excellent Analysis.



TIME.COM
Ten Grim Lessons Learned From the Iraq War

Despite the upbeat talk of the Obama Administration, the eight-year war that ended this week has done plenty of long-term damage to both Iraq and the United States. And it has bequeathed lessons worth considering ahead of future conflicts

The Iraq War Weakened the U.S. in the Middle East
By Tony Karon
December 16, 2011

Ten Grim Lessons Learned From the Iraq War


Some excerpts :

The no-show by Iraq’s President Jalal Talabani and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki at Wednesday’s departure ceremony that officially closed the U.S. military mission in Iraq spoke volumes: Chairs with name cards reserving them for the two Iraqi leaders were quickly occupied by U.S. soldiers, but the fact that the Iraqi leaders failed to show up to publicly thank the Americans for “Operation Iraqi Freedom” was a painful reminder of the limits of what the war had achieved.

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The combination of the horrors visited upon Iraq under U.S. occupation, and the failure of the massive show of American military force to bend the Iraqis to their will, havesharply diminished U.S. influence throughout the region. The year of the Arab Spring has shown that Washington’s ability to persuade its allies and intimidate its foes into compliance is dramatically reduced from what it had been in 2003.

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The U.S. departure sees American influence diminished, with Islamist Parties the likely inheritors of the fall of the dictatorships of Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, and the rest of the region — notably such U.S. allies as Israel, Saudi Arabia and the Palestinian Authority — acting independently of Washington’s preferences. A new Middle East, indeed; one that has relinquished Pax Americana and is writing its own history on terms that hardly fit the vision that drove the Iraq invasion. The demonstration effect of “Operation Iraqi Freedom,” then, has been to show the limits of American military power to shape events.

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