The Honeymoon Is Now Over

The last remaining American combat brigade left Iraq yesterday morning via the Kuwait border, which is the same place where the first tanks had crossed into Iraq on March 20, 2003. “By August 31, 2010, our combat mission in Iraq will end,” promised Barack Obama. And the promise will be kept! There will remain “only” 50,000 Americans in Iraq, who will be in charge of training Iraqi forces but no longer involved in maintaining order. In a way, this is the end of the war in Iraq for the United States.

But this is not the case for the Iraqi people. We were reminded of this last Tuesday when an attack outside an army recruiting office left 60 dead. It is too early to draw conclusions on this war that has killed, depending on the sources, between 100,000 and … 1 million civilians. We will have to wait for the country to return to some semblance of order before we can try to assess the consequences of George W. Bush’s choice and determine whether the price paid by the Iraqi people for the fall of Saddam Hussein was justified.

In any case, the American public believes that the price they have paid — the U.S. toll of 4,500 dead — is excessive. They should then be grateful to Barack Obama for closing this can of worms, even though on the other battlefield over in Afghanistan, the outcome seems uncertain. And, yet, the situation of the American president seems rather critical as the mid-term elections, when members of the Congress face re-election on November 2, get closer. His image in the public opinion keeps deteriorating. Blame it on Republican propaganda, which is naturally increasingly fierce the closer we get to the elections. But blame it also on Barack Obama’s refusal to settle for demagogy on subjects he deems essential. He has just expressed support for a controversial project to build a mosque near Ground Zero — the site of the fatal attacks on the World Trade Center that have served as justification for the two wars in progress — in the name of freedom of religion and equality among citizens. It is a courageous stance; however, it will not help him move back up in the polls. Eighteen percent of voters think he is Muslim, and 25 percent … that he was not born in the United States.

Even his historical reform of the health care system, which offers social security to the poorest Americans, has been disputed. His handling of the economic crisis has been criticized. He is being blamed for what he has done, which, often, has been deemed insufficient, as well as for what he has not done yet. The left, which had idealized him as a Superman who would save the planet, reproaches him for his indecisiveness and his softness. He is being condemned by the right for having kept his promises only partly. As a result, the risk of an electoral defeat is very tangible. He could lose his majority in Congress. And then find himself bound hand and foot, incapable of carrying on his reforms, at the head of an America still weakened by the end of its honeymoon with a president the whole world had envied. Such a missed opportunity. Obama could lose his majority … Such a missed opportunity!