Trump's Middle East debacle: Iran-US tensions threaten stability in Iraq, amid army dismissal

[Denizen]

Since Donald Trump took office he hasn't had a win in the Middle East.

He lost in the conflict with Syria and Russia which are defeating Trump's ragtag jihadists in Syria.

He lost in the conflict with Iran causing loss of oil production, ships, and drones.

Libya is becoming a center of ISIS recruitment and jihadist enlistment and training.

Now Iraq is falling apart because of the instability from Donald Trump's gut decisions.

Donald Trump's gut can't digest intelligence information and his decision-making gut is gripped with fear and is constipating US policy in the Middle East.

Yahoo is now part of Oath

Iran-US tensions threaten fragile stability in Iraq, amid army dismissals and restructuring
The Independent
Patrick Cockburn 30 September 2019

Lieutenant General Abdul Wahab al-Saadi was the great Iraqi military hero of the war against Isis, leading the assault on Mosul which recaptured the de facto Isis capital after a nine-month siege in 2017.
But at the weekend he was suddenly removed as the commander of the Counter Terrorism Service (CTS) shock troops, the elite corps of the Iraqi armed forces, by Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi. He was instead given what the general considered to be a non-job at the Defence Ministry.
Saadi has refused to accept the move against him, and described his new posting as an "insult" and a "punishment". His effective demotion has provoked a wave of popular support for arguably Iraq’s most esteemed general, on the streets as well as on social media. “He won the people’s friendship but the politicians’ hatred,” reads one slogan being shared online; another warns that “there is no longer any room for a patriot in this country.”
His removal is all the more significant because it takes place at a time when there is an intense struggle for influence in Iraq between the US and Iran. This tension is leading to fears, almost certainly exaggerated, that it could escalate into armed conflict.
There is uncertainty over why exactly Saadi was removed: one interpretation for the side-lining is that he was considered to be too close to the Americans by pro-Iran factions, but a more convincing motive may have been his aggressive campaign against corruption in the CTS which had reportedly alienated other senior officers.
The military corruption in CTS took its usual shape in the Iraqi armed forces of money for food and other supplies being diverted into private pockets, soldiers paying kickbacks to avoid fighting in the front line, or being permanently AWOL.
Corruption became more rampant when the CTS recaptured the oil city of Kirkuk from the Kurds on 17 October 2017, after which some CTS officers worked with others in positions of authority to sell oil on the black market.
Some Iraqi commentators agree that Saadi was unfairly treated, but argue that he himself was in the wrong by refusing to accept his orders from the prime minister.
“He made a huge mistake in going on television to denounce the decision,” says Abbas Khadim, director of the Iraq Initiative at the Atlantic Council.
But Khadim, currently in Baghdad, says that it is too crude to analyse all political developments in Iraq as being tied to the Iran-US confrontation.
However, if the simmering tensions do descend into armed conflict then Iraq would be one of the battlefields where it will be fought out, so the final loyalties of the armed forces, regular and irregular, will be of importance.
In addition to the turmoil over Saadi’s dismissal as head of the CTS, there is an ongoing struggle over control of the Hashd al-Shaabi, the paramilitary coalition of largely Shia forces that were raised to fight Isis at the height of their success in Iraq and Syria in 2014. Comprising some 30 different groups with a total of 65,000 to 85,000 fighters, many of the Hashd groups have a history which far predates the ascent of Isis.

 

[Oddball]

Left no longer interested in civil liberties, and foursquare behind international warmongering.

Who needs neocons?

 

[LordBrownTrout]

Libs anxious to get back to neoconning.

 

[fncceo]

Iran-US tensions threaten stability in Iraq

That's terrible ... Iraq has been the model of stability for decades ...

 

[Damaged Eagle]

The progressives want another Nobel Wa..... Peace Prize winner back in office.

*****SARCASTIC CHUCKLE*****