Islam Times - The Australian warns of strategic disaster in Iraq Anbar province

Islam Times - In a report published earlier this week, the Australian looked at Iraq and events currently unfolding in the Anbar province where al-Qaeda militants have come to clash with state-backed local tribes.

It wrote, “The portentous resurgence by al-Qaeda-linked militants in Iraq is a strategic disaster for the US that owes much to President Obama's determination to bring a hasty end to a highly unpopular war without first securing a planned agreement with Baghdad to maintain a residual US and coalition force in the country.”

It argues that should US President Barack had insisted on retaining a military presence in Iraq, al-Qaeda militants would have never been able to return in such force in the country. “Military strategists always believed that the presence of such a residual force in the post-withdrawal period was imperative if the grim developments now being seen in Anbar Province were to be avoided. With Iraq now looking into the abyss of a return to full-scale civil war, their worst fears are being realised, and it is inevitable that Obama will have to shoulder much of the blame.”