"Iraqi Government Confirms Cooperation With Syria, Iran And Russia ..." - South Front

 

"The Iraqi government has officially confirmed a cooperation with Syria, Iran and Russia to secure the Syrian-Iraqi border. According to the Iraqi Interior Ministry, there is a cooperation between the four countries on this issue.  The Iraqi media also reported refering Iraqi officials that Iraq and its allies will not allow establishing of any “buffer zone” between two countries."   South Front

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Well, pilgrims,  this is some really bad news for the "US led coalition." 

1.  The US has struggled since the invasion and occupation of Iraq to make the country a reliable ally  in its wars against regional actors in the ME.  One can debate endlessly what the causes were for these wars.  The "oilies" and other economic determinists have their explanation.  The Zionist conspiracy fans have theirs.  The "demonic forces" people (me) have ours.   The MIC crowd have theirs. But, no matter what your explanation the reality of the long military COIN, financial and political struggle cannot be seriously doubted.  If you think it was somehow not a real struggle look at the pictures of men with metal, robotic looking legs in the ads for various wounded veterans' aid groups. 

2.  The present government of the US along with its European allies is now continuing to struggle to help its painfully clumsy Iraqi government ally to capture Mosul against rather small but incredible determined Sunni Muslim fanatics who, in the main, would rather be dead than live in the Western mindset of the 21st Century.

3.  A while back Mattis and Kushner went to Baghdad to see Al-Abadi, the  "moderate" Shia Arab prime minister.  One must imagine that at least part of the message was an exhortation to "get your act together."  And a few days ago the Iraqi Shia population was treated to the spectacle of President Trump not only being "appointed" mukhtar in America but then his further denunciation of Iran the foremost Shia power center.  The Sunni princeling lounging in a chair behind Trump watched him IMO as a cat watches a bird.  One can only imagine the conversation among the potentates and dictators in that room after the mukhtar had finished his obeisance. 

4.  Iraq, Russia, Syria and Iran are now proclaimed to be allies by the Iraqi Interior Minister (police and police troops)The US with its encrusted neocon, ziocon and R2P Borg blew the last 15 years in the Islamic World and we are obviously invincibly ignorant and determined to remain so.  pl

 

https://southfront.org/iraqi-government-confirms-cooperation-with-syria-iran-and-russia-to-secure-syrian-iraqi-border-video/

 

Comments

[Annem]

Yes, Egypt is involved with both sides for its own interests. Jordan had also gone out of its way to reassure the Syrians that the troops that are being launched out of Jordan were for the sole purpose of attacking the IS and AQ folks. [Doesn't appear quite true, but the fact he said it was notable.] Meanwhile, Algeria was also mentioned as having joined senior military types for a confab in Damascus a few months ago, along with Jordan, Iraq, and Egypt. None of these states have problems with Russia, but they don't want to cuddle up with Iran.

[SR Wood]

Please provide a link to your article "Drinking the Koolaid".
Thanks in advance.

[Annem]

As for Moh Atta, I don't think there was much left of him to wash, with or without gloves.

[Seamus Padraig]

Hmmm. Exactly which "Arab" country would you be referring to here? It can't be Iran, which is not Arab. Would it be Iraq? But it was Iraq that invaded Iran in 1980, not the other way around. Anyway, the Shah was on extremely good terms with Israel--his own secret police were even trained by Shin Bet--so the idea that the Izzies got rid of him is, to put it mildly, rather unlikely.

[turcopolier]

SR Wood

http://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/2015/11/drinking-the-koolaid-w-patrick-lang.html

pl

[ex-PFC Chuck]

Rheinold Niebuhr once wrote that "man's capacity for justice makes democracy possible. His inclination toward injustice makes democracy necessary." I've pondered that statement many a time since I first read it over half a century ago and in my more optimistic moments consider the question of whether the statements should be reversed: "man's inclination toward justice makes democracy possible. His capacity for injustice makes democracy necessary." Maybe it's a "both/and."

[jsn]

The Evil/Power equation: Evil = (Power X Ignorance) / Humility

[ex-PFC Chuck]

Couldn't agree more. And you were correct not to limit the phenomenon to Islam.

The writers of **Sex At Dawn** would argue that subordination of women and misogyny go back to the invention of agriculture, when men began to be concerned about making sure that their progeny inherited access to the fertile plot of land he (or more likely his women) tilled.

http://amzn.to/1BBMpoS

[Matthew]

egl: That's an easy one.

Notice that most terrorism has a home address: The GCC countries.

Imagine if we had spent even a fraction of the energy we expended in Iraq pressuring the GCC countries to cut the terror-funding cord how much different the ME would look today.

[Matthew]

David E. Solomon:

Tom Paine justified the American War of Independence with one particularly accurate observation: it is unnatural for a island to rule a continent.

Well, US Policy wants to subcontract control over the ME to the Israelis and Saudis. This is an unnatural state of affairs and doomed to failure. The violence spread by these mini-Napoleonic states is a feature, not a bug of the policy.

[Babak Makkinejad]

When you turn off "Radical Islam", please, turn off "Radical Protestantism" as well.

[Babak Makkinejad]

You should not take what such people state at face value; they are nit reliable sources of any insight.

[turcopolier]

Richardstevenshack

I prefer Nietzsche. pl

[sid_finster]

I so am stealing this.

[sid_finster]

Exiles with an axe to grind.

[sid_finster]

I so am stealing this as well.

[ex-PFC Chuck]

Yes!

[LeaNder]

Bill, I forget how Atta's will was preserved in the US. Do you recall?

Straining my head: Not much time to change of planes, a luggage delivery delay with a suitcase left for the FBI to pick up? Ok, would that make sense? That's about all I recall? Why would I want to leave a will in the larger scenario. No matter if I wanted or distinctively dislike to have men touch me after?

http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/atta/resources/documents/will1.htm

[Vic]

We are missing the big picture. The Iraqis siding with Syria and Iran is just the initial creation of the alliances that will wage the big war.

We are seeing another historic cycle of the Muslim civil war between Sunni and Shia. Currently it is being played out by proxies fighting each other. If it escalates to a full on confrontation; the primary combatants will be Saudi Arabia and Iran.

The US got stuck early on supporting the Saudis because of our near total dependency on their oil. Since that time a lot has happened. The Saudis created wahhabism and then funded and supported radical islamic terrorism attacking the west through non state actors. More important, we are no longer dependent on Saudi oil. There is no inherent interest in saving their sorry butts any more. Their is no reason to put up with their outrageous misbehavior because of our "special relationship".

The Saudis have reacted to America's oil independence by scrambling to form a NATO like military alliance of Sunni Gulf States military's and by buying huge amounts of weapons and munitions.

What role does the US play? I suspect that State Department and Pentagon want to back the Sunni largely because it supports the status quo and has been the default setting since forever. Change is hard for these organizations.

In collage I studied China in the 1920-30s. It was a warlord period with no real central government. The best source of information on what was happening was diplomatic cables from our military attaches in the field who covered the warlords. The diplomats spent their time covering the cocktail circuit reporting on the huge number of Chinese political parties that controlled almost nothing.

One dynamic I noticed what that the Japanese were sending arms to darn near every Chinese warlord. I could not understand why. When I asked around I found that they did this for two reasons. One, it fed the wars which kept China weak, Two, no matter who won, the Japanese would have influence with the winner.

America should have a similar strategy concerning the Sunni - Shia conflict. Make huge amounts of money supplying both sides with arms and munitions. Support their efforts into battling each other into exhaustion.

I'd like to think that Trumps recent visit to Saudi Arabia and the resulting arms sale is a step in that direction; but I doubt it (I'd bet on status quo).

Vic

[Matthew]

Never trust an émigré.

They bring their feuds with them.

[tim s]

"The "oilies" and other economic determinists have their explanation. The Zionist conspiracy fans have theirs. The "demonic forces" people (me) have ours. The MIC crowd have theirs."

Don't forget the crowd who understands that there is no separation, and that these entities are one and the same.

[DH]

I've pretty much come to the conclusion it's simple human nature. Men like war, and women like warriors. And the big upside of war/imperialism is the spread of ideas and the intermixing of genetic material.

On the other hand, technology is slowly chipping away at our current version humanity. It is in the process of altering us at a faster and faster rate.

[Laura]

Col -- If only you had been emperor...or even listened to. I heard you on the talk shows. You tried...many people tried.

Many people marched, wrote, called and talked -- here we are because "the decider" decided.

[Account Deleted]

LeaNder,

Shia Crescent I should have said. This concept has been discussed on SST before; i.e. an Iranian Shia alliance extending through Iraq, Syria and Lebanon to the sea.

By "it is then" I just mean that this announcement appears to take us a long way towards that concept becoming a reality, as it ought now to be impossible for the US Coalition to stop it by occupying/partitioning SE Syria.

The early retirement comment was meant to convey the fact that the neocons/ziocons etc. appear to have engineered an outcome directly at odds with their strategy to contain Iranian (and Russian) influence in the region. Of course there is not a single person directing this strategy, but those who do so appear to be doing a very poor job.

I hope this is clearer, apologies if my wording was confusing.

[Norbert M Salamon]

While the theory might work, there is some dirt in the ointment, to wit: Russian and Chinese weapons are as good as the US product at a far lower price. Seeing that the main Shia country is with Russia and China, the plan can not work to benefit US MIC.