After nearly nine years, a trillion dollars, and thousands of lives lost, the Iraq war came to a quiet end earlier this month. Since the withdrawal of U.S. troops, Iraq has been besieged by internal conflict and fears of civil war. Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, a Shiite, exacerbated sectarian tensions by issuing an arrest warrant for the country’s Sunni vice president. A series of deadly bombings in Baghdad last week only made the situation worse. In a Wall Street Journal op-ed piece, former U.S. envoy to Iraq L. Paul Bremer critized President Obama for pulling troops out of Iraq. Bremer said the U.S. needs to expand its intelligence efforts in the country, as well as train the Iraqi military. Bremer played a critical role in the planning of the Iraq war during the George W. Bush administration and says without a U.S. presence, Iraq’s security and future may be at risk. He joins the program to expand upon his ideas about what will make Iraq stable.
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