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Iraq TJP summary: Obama has been unable to find a way to keep a US voice in Iraq. Iraq is a big deal and US has just disappeared. Admin says that NAM (Iraq PM) has kept us out; Bush people say that Obama has walked away. Maghan O’: We should have kept resid force in Iraq. Most important function would have been keeping a healthy tension between the central govt and new institutions. For 10 years Iraq has had a centralized power base. With removal of US, you took away support for new institutions. Iraqis view removal of forces as a sign we don’t care. Jim Steinberg: Could get that done. President was committed to keeping some troops in Iraq and used his leverage to try and get that done. President supported NAM in hopes of getting a new SOFA. Tried everything. We could not deploy forces without deal on immunity. We need to now focus on how can we now engage. This is going to be hard to do without support (financial, security etc.) MO: President ignored lessons of 2008 SOFA negotiations. There, we got creative on immunity. JS: NAM said he could do SOFA but couldn’t take it to Parliament. We insisted on going to Parliament beacause attys said without that we wouldn’t have a binding deal. MO: Will Iraq hold together? More challenges now that I have seen since 2003, but still more likely than not. NAM is consolidating power in last 9 mos which sends a msg to Kurds that they don’t like. If NAM kills democracy, then Kurds HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_025798