Why We Are There

The results of the Iraq War(s) has succeeded to be exactly opposite to what the Bush administration’s neocons planned.  The mission was to create a secure U.S.-Israeli friendly government that would act as a placeholder around Iran. Then after a quick victory in Iraq, Syria would be the next to fall in line. How did that work out? Well, Washington is still hopeful.

Every move the US has attempted both in Iraq and Syria has empowered Iran. This is why the leftover neocons in Washington will not give up on their US-Iran proxy war. This proxy war, in Iraq, has waxed and waned for years, today it has waxed to its capacity. 

The United States of America has again fallen into the trap aided by disinformation and misinterpretation of events on the ground. The US may be lashing out due to their frustration of constantly being put in check by the Iranian Chess-Masters. Is there anyone in Washington not susceptible to a Fool’s Mate? 

Iranian Commander General Qassem Soleimani Execution

On the outskirts of the Baghdad International Airport, a US drone attacked a delegation including the top figure in Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), killing him as well as several others, including Iran’s Quds Forces commander, Gen. Qassem Soleimani. The White House confirmed President Trump ordered the attack, and emphasized that they considered Soleimani a “terrorist.”

Trita Parsi @tparsi

Spoke to a very knowledgeable person about what Iran’s response to Soleimani’s assassination might be. This would be the equivalent of Iran assassinating (Gen.) Petreus or (Gen.) Mattis, I argued.

No, he responded, this is much bigger than that…

6:11 PM – 2 Jan 2020

Wrong Signal

The media and the think-tankers like Brookings, Carnegie, Hudson, the Washington Institute, the “Middle East Institute” and others were promoting a belief that the last weeks protestors were attached to an anti-Iran objective. These fools advocated a ‘weakness of Iran in Iraq’, a phenomenon based on a few street comments and a few arson-inspired fires. Its understandable considering their conclusions are based upon “non-journalistic” reports from WhatsApp, social media, Skype, activists, jihadists and other unvetted propaganda sources.

Events Leading To The Execution

On 27th December 2019, several rockets were fired from unidentified attackers against the K1 Iraqi military base in Kirkuk, north of Iraq. In this base, as in many others, Iraqi and US military are present on the same ground and within the same walls, even if they have different command and control HQs. Two Iraqi policemen and one American contractor were killed and 2 Iraqi Army officers and four US contractors were wounded.

Instead of ceasing the emotions of this tragedy and using sentiment to negotiated peaceful restitution, Washington decided to escalate. The following day, Defense Secretary Mark Esper called the Iraqi caretaker Prime Minister to inform him of “his decision to bomb Kataeb Hezbollah bases in Iraq”. Mr Abdel Mahdi asked Esper to meet face-to-face, and told his interlocutor that this would be dangerous for Iraq: he rejected the US decision.

Esper responded that he was “not calling to negotiate but to inform about a decision that has already been taken”. Mr Abdel Mahdi asked Esper if the US has “proof against Kataeb Hezbollah to share so Iraq can arrest those responsible for the attack on K1”. No response: Esper told Abdel Mahdi that the US was “well-informed” and that the attack would take place “in a few hours”.

In less than half an hour, US jets bombed five Iraqi security forces’ positions deployed along the Iraqi-Syrian borders, 538 kilometers from the K1 military base (that had been bombed by perpetrators still unknown!). The US announced the attack but omitted the fact that in these positions there were not only Kataeb Hezbollah but also included Iraqi Army and Federal Police officers. Most victims of the US attack were Iraqi army and police officers. Only 9 officers of Kataeb Hezbollah were killed.

These five positions had the task of intercepting and hunting down ISIS and preventing the group’s militants from crossing the borders from the Anbar desert. The Iraqi people held these groups in high esteem, after all they were the forces involved with saving many civilians from the horrors of ISIS.

Soleimani a Marked Man

The US strikes aimed at Kataeb Hezbollah backfired and provided an unexpected benefit to the Iranian supported PMU’s. Secretaries Pompeo and Esper’s actions were in perfect harmony with the goals of the Iranian-Quds brigade commander Qassem Soleimani. He appeared to have been instrumental in diverting the country’s attention towards the US embassy and providing means for the break-in of protestors. Brigadier General Qassem Soleimani ability to capitalize on American mistakes in the Middle East made him a marked man.

Members of Hashd al-Shaabi and other Iraqi forces units, along with families and friends of the 79 (killed and wounded) victims demonstrated outside the US embassy in the Green Zone in Baghdad. Flags of Hashd al-Shaabi were flying over the entrance of the US embassy. The withdrawal of the US forces from Iraq has become the priority of the Iraqi parliament, the people and of Moqtada al-Sadr.

Sayyed Ali Khamenei: “Thank God Our Enemies Are Imbeciles”

Pompeo and Esper broke the Iraqi political stalemate in the direction of the Iranian based Hashd al-Shaabi. One single rushed decision emanating from inexperienced US policymakers, advice from neocons think tankers and a silent US Congress has dealt huge setback in the region’s proxy war. One has to wonder, was this “Blunder” shaped by incompetence, or a planned larger agenda?

Did these “experts” think that these blunderous retaliatory strikes aimed at Kataeb Hezbollah would make them unable or unwilling to respond? Did they believe that the “Kataeb Hezbollah” would be degraded by the US strikes? Did they think that Kataeb Hezbollah would be weakened? Check!