Sunday Globe Specials: US Lost Iraq War

I know that is not the received wisdom you have gotten from your lying, war-promoting media, Americans, but nevertheless:

"Some officials in Baghdad had been doing the bare minimum to placate the United States and were in fact sympathetic to the Iranian efforts in Syria"

Can it really be described any other way? 

"US effort to block flow of arms from Iran to Syria falters; Iraq reluctant to inspect planes using its airspace" by Michael R. Gordon and Eric Schmitt  |  New York Times, December 02, 2012

WASHINGTON — The Amer­ican effort to stem the flow of Iranian arms to Syria has faltered because of Iraq’s reluctance to inspect aircraft carrying the weapons through its airspace, US officials say.

The shipments have persisted at a critical time for Syrian President Bashar Assad, who has come under increasing military pressure from rebel fighters.

The air corridor over Iraq has emerged as a main supply route for weapons, including rockets, antitank missiles, rocket-propelled grenades, and mortars.

Iran has an enormous stake in Syria, which is its staunchest Arab ally and has also provided a channel for Iran’s support to the Lebanese Islamist movement Hezbollah.

To the disappointment of the Obama administration, American efforts to persuade the Iraqis to conduct random inspections of the flights have been largely unsuccessful.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton secured a commitment from Iraq’s foreign minister in September that Iraq would inspect flights from Iran to Syria. But the Iraqis have inspected only two, most recently on Oct. 27. No weapons were found, but one of the two planes that landed in Iraq for inspection was on its way back to Iran after delivering its cargo in Syria.

Reminds one of the CIA gun-running to Central America in the 1980S, with the empty planes running drugs back north for distribution in U.S. cities.

Adding to the United States’ frustrations, Iran appears to have been tipped off by Iraqi officials as to when inspections would be conducted, American officials say, citing classified reports by US intelligence analysts.

Iran’s continued efforts to aid the Syrian government were described in interviews with a dozen US administration, military and congressional officials, most of whom requested anonymity to discuss intelligence matters.

‘‘The abuse of Iraqi airspace by Iran continues to be a concern,’’ a US official said.

This from the country that has armed drones flying all over the place.

‘‘We urge Iraq to be diligent and consistent in fulfilling its international obligations and commitments, either by continuing to require flights over Iraqi territory en route to Syria from Iran to land for inspection or by denying overflight requests for Iranian aircraft going to Syria.’’

And the same goes for the main rebel supply route through Turkey, right?

Iraqi officials insist that they oppose the ferrying of arms through Iraq’s airspace. They also cite claims by Iran that it is merely delivering humanitarian aid, and they call the American charges unfounded.

Humanitarian aid, yeah. That's what we call our assistance, too!

‘‘We wouldn’t be able to convince them, even if we searched all the airplanes, because they have prejudged the situation,’’ Ali al-Musawi, the spokesman for Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki of Iraq, said of the American concerns. ‘‘Our policy is that we will not allow the transfer of arms to Syria.’’

Iraqis have had experience in such dealings before (blog editor rolls eyes towards ceiling) when dealing with Americans.

Musawi acknowledged that one of the planes was not inspected until it was returning from Damascus, but said it was a simple error, not a deliberate effort to help the Iranians.

But one former Iraqi official, who asked not to be identified because he fears retaliation by the Iraqi government, said some officials in Baghdad had been doing the bare minimum to placate the United States and were in fact sympathetic to the Iranian efforts in Syria.

Is that all that surprising? Same religious outlook, economic interests, etc?

Imagine someone making a beef of our relationship with Canada. Seems silly, right? Well.... !

Iran’s support for Syria is vital to the Assad government, US officials said. In addition to flying arms and ammunition to Syria, Iran’s paramilitary Quds Force is sending trainers and advisers, sometimes disguised as religious pilgrims, tourists, and businessmen, the officials say.

Yes, and AmeriKa is doing the same in all the places it has invaded, as well as setting up spies as religious fundamentalists, tourists, businessmen, and reporters!

After a while, folks, you just get sick of all the war prop.

In August, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, criticized Iran for what they described as its assistance to the Assad government, in particular the training of a progovernment militia made up mostly of members of Assad’s minority Alawite sect.

‘‘Iran is playing a larger role in Syria in many ways, not only in terms of the IRGC, but in terms of assistance, training,’’ Panetta told reporters, referring to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.
‘‘We’ve got to make sure that Iran does not exercise that kind of influence in Syria.’’

No, only the EUSraeli empire is allowed to do that. 

There is evidence of collusion between Iranian and Iraqi officials on the inspections, according to US intelligence assessments.

These the same intelligence agencies that estimated WMD and nook-lar bom.... awww, forget it.

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Related:

"The US influence also appears limited despite its assertion that it is building a strategic partnership with the Iraqis."

All those billions we poured in training and material, too. 

And if that weren't bad enough.

"Syrian rebel group backed by Al Qaeda in Iraq" by Tim Arango and Anne Barnard  |  New York Times, December 09, 2012

BAGHDAD — The lone Syrian rebel group with an explicit stamp of approval from Al Qaeda has become one of the uprising’s most effective fighting forces, posing a stark challenge to the United States and other countries that want to support the rebels but not Islamic extremists.

Then stop sending Al-CIA-Duh in there! 

Money flows to the group, the Nusra Front, from like-minded donors abroad. Its fighters, a small minority of the rebels, have the boldness and skill to storm fortified positions and lead other battalions to capture military bases and oil fields. As their successes mount, they gather more weapons and attract more fighters.

The group is a direct offshoot of Al Qaeda in Iraq, Iraqi officials and former Iraqi insurgents say, which has contributed veteran fighters and weapons.

“This is just a simple way of returning the favor to our Syrian brothers that fought with us on the lands of Iraq,’’ said an insurgent veteran of Al Qaeda in Iraqi, who said he helped lead Nusra Front’s efforts in Syria. The United States, sensing that time may be running out for Syria’s president, Bashar Assad, hopes to isolate the group to prevent it from inheriting Syria or fighting on after Assad’s fall to pursue its goal of an Islamic state....

I wrote such crap as a comment along the margin in my printed pos. 

It's the divide-and-conquer strategy under the cover of sectarianism!

But blacklisting the Nusra Front could backfire. It would pit the United States against some of the best fighters in the insurgency that it aims to support. While some Syrian rebels fear the group’s growing power, others work closely with it and admire it — or, at least, its military achievements — and are loath to end their cooperation.

The United States has been reluctant to supply weapons to rebels that could end up in the hands of anti-Western jihadis, as did weapons that Qatar supplied to Libyan rebels with American approval.

Which means they have supplied them. 

Critics of the Obama administration’s Syria policy counter that its failure to support the rebels helped create the opening that Islamic militants have seized in Syria.

The Nusra Front’s appeals to Syrian fighters seem to be working. At a recent meeting in Damascus, Abu Hussein al-Afghani, a veteran of insurgencies in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya, addressed frustrated young rebels. They lacked money, weapons, and training, so they listened attentively.

In other words, a CIA mercenary.

He told them he was a leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, now working with an Al Qaeda branch in Syria, and by joining him, they could make their mark. One fighter recalled his resonant question: ‘‘Who is hearing your voice today?’’

On Friday, demonstrators in several Syrian cities raised banners with slogans like, ‘‘No to American intervention, for we are all Jebhat al-Nusra,’’ referring to the group’s full name, Ansar al-Jebhat al-Nusra li-Ahl al-Sham, or Supporters of the Front for Victory of the People of Syria. One rebel battalion, the Ahrar, or Free Men, asked on its Facebook page why the United States did not blacklist Assad’s ‘‘terrorist’’ militias.

Another jihadist faction, the Sahaba Army in the Levant, even congratulated the group on the ‘‘great honor’’ of being deemed terrorists by the United States.

Even antigovernment activists who are wary of the group — some deride it as ‘‘the Taliban’’ — said the blacklisting would be ineffective and worsen strife within the uprising. To isolate the group, they say, the United States should support mainstream rebel military councils and Syrian civil society, like the committees that have sprung up to run rebel-held villages.

The Nusra Front is the only Syrian rebel group explicitly endorsed by Al Qaeda in online forums, the report said.

The group gained prominence with suicide bombings in Damascus and Aleppo in early 2012 that targeted government buildings but caused heavy civilian casualties. It was the first Syrian insurgent organization to claim responsibility for suicide and car bomb attacks that killed civilians.

Many of its members — Syrians, Iraqis, and a few from other countries — fought in Iraq, where the Syrian government helped funnel jihadis to battle the American occupation.

In Iraq’s Diyala Province, a former member of Al Qaeda in Iraq said that a leader and many members of the group were fighting in Syria under the Nusra Front’s banner.

They sure do talk to a lot of them for it to be such a shadowy terrorist network.

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