Clinton: ‘Iraqis are ready, willing, and able’

Today’s the supposed big day: U.S. troops are withdrawing from Iraqi cities. While U.S. troops step down, Iraqi troops are supposed to step up. But can they?

Secretary Clinton is confident they can. In a press briefing yesterday, she said, “[T]here is a great deal of confidence in the fundamental ability of the Iraqis to begin to protect their citizens.” She added that despite the bombings of the last few weeks, “our assessment is that the Iraqis are ready, willing, and able to step up to this.”

She — seen above with Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari in Baghdad on April 25 — called the withdrawal a “significant milestone in the responsible withdrawal of our forces from Iraq and in Iraq’s journey to become a stable, sovereign, self-reliant state.”

FP Best Defense blogger Thomas Ricks, however, doesn’t share Clinton’s confidence. Yesterday he wrote:

Yes, Iraqi units are better trained and equipped than in the past. But that was never the problem. Rather, the point of failure was political. Sunni death squads and Shiite militias knew what they were fighting for, while an Iraqi soldier didn’t necessarily.

He ends ominously:

I hope I am wrong, and that Iraq really is embarking on a new course this week. But I don’t think so. So I think the real question now is: How fast will the unraveling occur?

What’s Clinton going to do if Iraq does unravel? She said the United States remains prepared to help out if needed. Obviously, she’s constrained by whatever President Obama wants to do, but if — heaven forbid — Iraq falls apart, she’ll be facing some pretty tough questions at her future news conferences.

Photo: Hadi Mizban-Pool/Getty Images