I did too. The moment we began a nation building program there. That was the whole intent of the war. MONEY for buddies and not the elimination of a military threat. That threat now will be bigger than ever. Iran goes in and takes over all the new shinny military the USA FOOLISHLY sold, gave away, loaned, etc to Iraq and trained. Put one Charamatic Radical Islamic Cleric in place in Iraq and the sheeple will be begging Iran to take over.
If you go back to the 1990s and look at the various characters from Iraq (Ahmed Chalabi, for example) who were involved in lobbying the Clinton and Bush II administrations to invade Iraq and topple Saddam Hussein’s Ba’athist government, it’s not outlandish to suggest that the U.S. government basically had a bunch of Iranian moles dictating its Iraq policy.
“Put one Charamatic Radical Islamic Cleric in place in Iraq and the sheeple will be begging Iran to take over.”
This I doubt, only because my understanding is that Shias and Sunnis hate each other more than they hate Jews, Infidels, and whatever else they happen to hate on Tuesdays. Plus, that would be a relatively orderly endgame. I definitely don’t count out the possibility of *several* charismatic clerics cum warlords gathering militias and making war with each other...along the Afghanistan model.
Predictions notwithstanding, there is every potential for a decade or more of mischiefmaking, bloodletting, and chaos of every variety...including and not limited to yet another enormous landmass from whence Iran can martial what will likely become nuclear terrorism in future years. And I certainly believe that Iran will attempt to infiltrate and/or sabotage our “nation building” efforts in an attempt to humiliate the US.