By insisting that U.S. troops exit the main stage despite all this, Maliki [and, presumably, Obama] has put politics first. The prime minister’s eye is on national elections scheduled for the end of the year. Maliki knows that his “repulsion of the occupiers” could win him political clout and campaign ammunition. He enjoys little support in Mosul, which is perhaps why it has failed to warrant the same urgent and decisive security operation we saw in Shiite-dominated Basra in 2008. For the militants, Mosul consequently became a place where they can regroup, reinvigorate morale, and capitalize on an exposed, vulnerable Iraqi security force.
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