'The Trench' On Iraq

'The American public certainly wants the war to be over, but insurgencies aren’t known to quit on specific dates or with formal proclamations.

Worse still, a lack of popular interest fused with Afghanistan’s surge and other global issues (such as Iran) to reduce the Obama administration's urgency to engage Baghdad’s political sphere. Nouri-al-Maliki belatedly entered a second term as prime minister on the arms of Washington and Tehran, and was left to his own devices until a tenuous power-sharing agreement collapsed in December 2011.

The upshot: U.S. influence continues to decline as Iraq’s violence gradually intensifies.' More From James Gundun Here.