What Then, Barack?

British historian and Harvard professor Niall Ferguson, and hardly a hawk, on "Obama's muddled view of intervention"---asking the questions that so far no MSM journalist has raised.
Tribune:

Take a look at Obama's arguments for a speedy U.S. withdrawal. Last month, he asserted that "redeployment remains our best leverage to pressure the Iraqi government to achieve ... political settlement between its warring factions." The key is "to give Iraqis their country back" because "no amount of American soldiers can solve the political differences at the heart of somebody else's civil war."

But Obama's claim that a U.S. withdrawal would somehow pressure the Sunni and Shiite "to come to the table and find peace" is a fraud. Withdrawal is much more likely to lead to an escalation of the internecine conflict that is tearing Iraq apart. In a devastating 2006 paper for the Brookings Institution, Daniel L. Byman and Kenneth M. Pollackpointed out that "the only thing standing between Iraq and a descent into a Lebanon- or Bosnia-like maelstrom is 135,000 American troops."

Professor Ferguson points us to Obama's foreign policy advisor, Samantha Powers, "whose Pulitzer Prize-winning "A Problem from Hell" was an indictment of Western impotence in the face of successive genocides" and wonders if Obama has absorbed its message.

If we leave when Barack Obama wants us to, what then?

Previous posts: Flower Power Obama, Scarlett O'Bama

UPDATE: WSJ has a sympathetic piece on Obama's ability in Illinois to work across the aisle and turn former foes into friends. They missed a few of his extremely liberal votes. Also here. As for his former foes, presumably on ethics legislation among other issues, the political spoils system still works for Obama's new supporters, like state Rep. Rickey "Hollywood" Hendon. Sun Times story today. And Obama manages his business as usual as well. Yup he knows how to work the ropes around corrupt Cook County and Illinois.

UPDATE: Dan at Reverse Spin has some news on Obama's "wimpy logo". (Here's my earlier take on the Big O:) Sounds like yet another waffle.