US BEGINS "BIG STICK" NEGOTIATIONS WITH IRAN

[ChrisL]

Iranian mullahs might be crazy but they aren't stupid. They are playing BOTH sides in order to create chaos because it benefits their ultimate goals. Once Iraq is SO destabilized, they can easily move in and take over if they wish. Then, they can take care of their "enemies" later. But don't think for a MOMENT that they won't use whomever to destabilize the area. They will.

 

[ChrisL]

Trust Iran Only as Far as You Can Throw It Foreign Policy

Yet American veterans of the decade-long Iraq war and occupation say that the idea is both preposterous and dangerous. Iran, they maintain, has long played a double game in Mesopotamia and the Levant, both enabling Sunni extremists to infiltrate countries such as Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon and then swooping in as the only safeguard heralded against the very forces they helped unleash.

Another high-ranking retired U.S. military official, who asked not to be identified by name, told FP: "Ansar al-Islam, the people who eventually became al Qaeda in Iraq [the forerunner organization to ISIS] — where’d they come from? They came from Iran. They traveled from Iran through Iraqi Kurdistan and then through Mosul before moving south through Al Sharqat and then Tikrit." The official added: "Iran ran a very subversive campaign against Saddam long before we got into that country. And we were dealing with those same lines of communications before we got there. Look what they’ve done to the Levant, to Lebanon a couple times over. They’re even in Gaza."

Col. Rick Welch spent roughly seven years in Iraq, and worked directly under Gen. David Petraeus during the surge and "Anbar Awakening" period, acting as a chief U.S. military liaison with both the Sunni tribes and Shiite militia groups that were integral to containing what was then a roiling civil war.

"Back when we were getting intel from Iraqis at every level in our reconciliation program, they were telling us that Iran was funding any group that could keep Iraq chaotic," Welch said."Back when we were getting intel from Iraqis at every level in our reconciliation program, they were telling us that Iran was funding any group that could keep Iraq chaotic," Welch said. "They did not want to see democracy in Iraq. They were keeping us tied down and were preventing the [post-Saddam] government from functioning in order to create the cover to let them to get their intelligence assets in place, especially in the south, and then influence the government piece by piece. That was not conspiratorial in nature; it was a deeply held conviction and perception throughout Iraq, and throughout the U.S. military."

 

[Manonthestreet]

Iranian mullahs might be crazy but they aren't stupid. They are playing BOTH sides in order to create chaos because it benefits their ultimate goals. Once Iraq is SO destabilized, they can easily move in and take over if they wish. Then, they can take care of their "enemies" later. But don't think for a MOMENT that they won't use whomever to destabilize the area. They will.

I'd post links for ya that might better clarify it but I'm on my phone and the links are on the home PC. There maybe temporary truces in areas that benefit both sides but in the end its temporary. Saudis are getting encircled....