The Chicago Tribune reported in today’s paper about growing concern in the United States and other countries over the number of foreigners joining militant/terrorist groups in Iraq and Syria. The concern is that these people, who hold U.S. and European passports, will come back radicalized – and trained – to commit terror attacks in the West.
Last week, Attorney General Eric Holder said this is “something that gives us really extreme, extreme concern. In some ways, it's more frightening than anything I think I've seen as attorney general.” FBI Director James B. Comey said the threat of a new terrorist attack in the U.S. “keeps me up at night.”
It’s too bad that the Administration didn’t consider this possibility back in 2010 and 2011 when it had a chance to keep some U.S. presence in Iraq after the end of 2011. Maybe if we had been a little more flexible and tried a little harder, and had more foresight, we could have reached an agreement with the Iraqis. (See, inter alia, here and here.)
And maybe we could have asked people with proven success in Iraq, such as Ambassador Ryan Crocker and General David Petraeus, to stay in Iraq to continue the good work they had previously done. (See what I am talking about here.) I find it hard to believe either gentleman would have said no to a Presidential request.
Maybe if we had done that, Iraq wouldn’t be in chaos today – and maybe Attorney General Holder wouldn’t be so frightened and FBI Director Comey could get a good night’s sleep.
But we’ll never know – because we didn’t try.
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