Posted on 05/10/2020 10:56:58 AM PDT by BeauBo
When U.S. missiles killed Iran’s most important general and its most important militia leader in early January as they were visiting Baghdad, it looked like American forces would be kicked out of Iraq...
More than four months later, not only are U.S. forces still there, but it’s clear that the killings have created space for a new Iraqi government to assert some independence from its powerful neighbor. The signs of this new approach have been building over recent months, and the ascendance last week of Mustafa Al-Kadhimi to the post of transitional prime minister is the latest and most profound...
The (Iranian-backed) militia (Kataib Hezbollah) opposed Kadhimi and threatened violence if he became prime minister. The Iraqi Parliament ignored it...
A turf battle among Iranian factions in Iraq has “opened up space in Baghdad for previously unexpected outcomes...
Kadhimi’s platform explicitly calls for reform of the Interior Ministry, whose forces coordinated with Iranian-backed militias to violently disperse recent peaceful protests against Iranian influence. The new chief of that ministry will be General Othman Ghanimi, an American-trained officer who is currently the chief of staff of Iraq’s military. His new ministry was once infiltrated by militia leaders who showed more loyalty to Soleimani and Iran than to Iraq. He now has an opportunity to clean house, a longtime U.S. objective.
Kadhimi has also pledged to take on corruption, which is the primary issue for the national protest movement — and a primary reason that Iran is able to exert influence in Iraq...
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
"There is no single event that has caused Iran’s current loss of influence in Iraq. Nationwide protests against corruption and Iranian influence, as well as internal strife within and among Iranian-backed militias, helped Kadhimi’s rise. At the same time, Soleimani’s death was a factor.
“When Soleimani was killed, Iran had already overplayed its hand and was suffering the consequences,” says Michael Knights, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Since his death, he says, Iran’s position in Iraq has weakened even further. “It still has influence, but not control.”"
Does it mention the fact that we can thank President Trump alone for weakening the terrorist state of Iran?
obama’s billions spent
Oil at $20 a barrel
No other real export products
Expensive foreign wars and terrorist groups to support
What could go wrong?
“What could go wrong?”
Coronavirus, and a plaque of locusts?
and perpetually soggy sandals
That was predictable-
And yes, it’s because of Trump.
Under Obama Iran was doing well, some of the economic pressure was lost, as the US didn’t push to keep them as isolated and we even unfroze their assets. Finally we didn’t apply a lot of military pressure on them.
However, like Germany in 1942 that covered a huge portion of the world map, they were over extended but looked very impressive on the map where areas are shaded where they have control/influence.
However, their industrial base, economic capacity (volume), demographics, etc. does not allow for them to persist once the heat is turned up. Iran is backing groups in Lebanon, the Gaza Strip, they over threw the government in Yemen and are fighting a proxy war there. They are in Syria, Iraq, are playing in the gulf with our Navy, want long range missiles, a nuke... all these things cost money and put their military and intel apparatus under pressure. They have a reach all the way into Europe and South America: http://mppre.gob.ve/en/2020/01/20/foreign-ministers-venezuela-iran-diplomatic-relations-tehran/
They are not smart enough to consolidate power on their own. So, over stretched/reaching, now with the pressure back on, they are having a very difficult time holding on to everything and like a Napoleon or a Hitler will see their empire crumble unless they consolidate power (i.e. give up things of lower value and concentrate their capabilities on what they really want to hold onto).
The poverty rate in Iran is now at 13%, and that’s not Western BS poverty but real poverty, where you go to bed hungry (<$5 a day per head to live on). With the idiot Obama out of the office and the pressure back on, their GDP is slowing and in fact now it’s contracting: https://tradingeconomics.com/iran/gdp-growth-annual
Conscription times are being increased or already have been, morale isn’t the best, and the renewed emphasis on trade restrictions by the Trump administration which also is going after those allies that conduct trade with Iran is crippling their access to needed technologies.
https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP89S01450R000200230001-0.pdf
Iran looks big and bad on paper, but they are in trouble. IMHO-
PS- they also lost much of their grip over Yemen.
I haven’t read much on this so I don’t really know what’s going on. But I do know one thing. COVID-19 hit Iran hard. Much of their senior leadership have been decimated by the virus.
“More than four months later, not only are U.S. forces still there”
as I suspected, even when Iraq “told” us to leave, we didn’t leave. If obamatard was still around, we would have evacuated asap. Iraq is our SOLE base of ops against Iraq, that’s why probably Trump told the Iraq ambassador (told, not requested) we are staying. Most of the US smart missiles against Iran terrorists came from Iraq..
The “journalist” is desperate to minimize the fact that Trump’s “disproportionate” attacks on the militias, the embarrassing failure of Soleimani’s attack on the US Embassy, and the killing of Soleimani and several other key Iranians had much effect. Nor any mention that the Trump administration appears to have politically outmaneuvered Iran in Iraq, something Obama failed to do. Also note, not a single mention of the crippling sanctions that have so weakened Iran or the man who imposed them. If Obama had done this, his name would have been in the headline.
Angry citizens....
We are over $130 Trillion in debt. We’re bankrupt.
We need to get out of Iraq, Afghanistan, Korea & Europe and save tens of billions ASAP. We can’t afford this anymore.
“even when Iraq “told” us to leave, we didn’t leave.”
That vote in the Iraqi Parliament was a non-binding resolution - by design. It was to encourage the Government (the then Prime Minister) to start the process of negotiating a withdrawal. And it was to posture politically to the public and Iran, who were pissed off about America killing Iran’s most famous General, in Baghdad.
It was like a “Congressional Censure”, or “Sense of the Senate” - just an expression of displeasure. It was a political statement for domestic consumption - just a fig leaf to assuage public butt-hurt right after Soleimani’s assasination, over their Country not having control over what happens in their Country, while the USA and Iran run roughshod through their backyards.
We used to say that in Iraq, the Kurds say they want the Americans to stay, and they do; The Sunnis say they want the Americans to leave, but they don’t (majority Shi’ites will pillage them), and the Shia say they want the Americans to stay, but they don’t (so they can get to pillaging the Sunnis). Politicians there, as here, try to talk out of both sides of their mouths.
well said.
POTUS Trump by his “stroke of a pen” did more in constructive foreign policy than 75 years of Democrats.
They are getting spanked by Israeli airstrikes on a regular basis, also.
I didn't see it nor did I see how awful Yahoo and the MSM wrote and said it was that Trump took out the General.
It’s Trump vs. the world.
And what is amazing is that Trump is always right and often wins.
Oh how they hate to admit, and avoid at all cost, giving
Trump credit where credit is due.
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