December 12 – A Reality Check on Our “Success” in Iraq; What We Are Leaving Behind in Iraq; The U.K. Out in the Cold?

Written by

Full Program	LISTEN TO FULL PROGRAM
Part 1	We begin with two perspectives on our withdrawal from Iraq that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki applauded as a success at the White House where President Obama spoke of the impressive progress made by Iraq. First, Middle East Scholar and Iraq specialist Juan Cole joins us to analyze what this long and expensive war achieved for the United States that appear to have left Iran in charge of Iraq’s destiny. And what we are leaving behind in a country broken by a war we waged based on specious claims.
Part 2	Then we speak with a former Deputy Director of the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research, the only Intelligence Agency that told the truth about Iraq’s alleged WMD’s and resisted the Bush Administration’s manufactured case for war. Wayne White joins us to reflect on where Iraq is today as opposed to before under Saddam Hussein, and whether this largely defenseless country with deep internal divisions will hold together, presided over by a corrupt and weak government over which the U.S. has little influence while Iran seems to call the shots.
Part 3	Then finally we examine the apparent self-marginalization of the U.K. in Europe, following the British Prime Minister’s rejection of an agreement that came out of the recent European summit. James Cronin a professor of History at Boston College who chairs the British Study Group at Harvard’s Center for European Studies joins us to discuss a possible rift in Britain’s ruling coalition and whether London’s financial center really did veto the European agreement as Prime Minister Cameron has claimed.
	MUSIC: MGMT – Pieces of What?; My Morning Jacket – Gideon; Fionn Regan – Shadow of an Empire; Vera Lynn – There'll Always be an England