Does the United States suffer from a learning disability in Iraq?
FP editor in chief Moisés Naím has a new piece at PostGlobal, the Washington Post‘s innovative 24/7 “conversation on global issues with David Ignatius and Fareed Zakaria.” Naím fears that the United States is operating under the same faulty assumptions in getting out of Iraq that it operated under in going in to Iraq. And ...
FP editor in chief Moisés Naím has a new piece at PostGlobal, the Washington Post's innovative 24/7 "conversation on global issues with David Ignatius and Fareed Zakaria."
Naím fears that the United States is operating under the same faulty assumptions in getting out of Iraq that it operated under in going in to Iraq. And we all know how well that turned out, right? Naím cites three major faulty assumptions that, together, add up to a "learning disability" that the United States—including both the Bush administration and the Democrats in Congress—must overcome if it is ever to understand the problem of Iraq:
Overestimating the capabilities of the Iraqi government
Overestimating the capabilities of the U.S. government
Disdaining diplomacy
Check it out.
FP editor in chief Moisés Naím has a new piece at PostGlobal, the Washington Post‘s innovative 24/7 “conversation on global issues with David Ignatius and Fareed Zakaria.”
Naím fears that the United States is operating under the same faulty assumptions in getting out of Iraq that it operated under in going in to Iraq. And we all know how well that turned out, right? Naím cites three major faulty assumptions that, together, add up to a “learning disability” that the United States—including both the Bush administration and the Democrats in Congress—must overcome if it is ever to understand the problem of Iraq:
- Overestimating the capabilities of the Iraqi government
- Overestimating the capabilities of the U.S. government
- Disdaining diplomacy
More from Foreign Policy


Is Cold War Inevitable?
A new biography of George Kennan, the father of containment, raises questions about whether the old Cold War—and the emerging one with China—could have been avoided.


So You Want to Buy an Ambassadorship
The United States is the only Western government that routinely rewards mega-donors with top diplomatic posts.


Can China Pull Off Its Charm Offensive?
Why Beijing’s foreign-policy reset will—or won’t—work out.


Turkey’s Problem Isn’t Sweden. It’s the United States.
Erdogan has focused on Stockholm’s stance toward Kurdish exile groups, but Ankara’s real demand is the end of U.S. support for Kurds in Syria.