While he’s correct about the situation, with all due respect, Gen. McInerney is absolutely wrong about the cause:
Escalating protests in Baghdad threaten the Iraqi government as Shiite Muslim factions battle for control for the country, and retired U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Tom McInerney says Iran could soon wield all the power in Iraq unless the U.S. changes course in significant ways. […]
“What you’re seeing right now is that (radical Shiite cleric) Moqtada al-Sadr is responsible for creating a greater wedge when the current Iraq prime minister wanted to make Iraq more independent from Iran,” McInerney told WND and Radio America.“You have a combination of Iranian Shiite and Iraqi Shiite competing as to who controls the government and who controls Iraq. That’s the bottom line of what’s going on over there right now,” he added. […]
McInerney said all of this upheaval can be traced to the Obama administration’s decision to wash its hands of Iraq. “When we pulled out, this administration fundamentally gave Iraq to Iran,” McInerney said.
No, no, a thousand times no!
We gave Iraq to Iran in 2003 when we invaded. Saddam Hussein was a brutal dictator, but he was Sunni. What the hell did we think was going to happen when we destroyed the Sunni power structure and created a new majority Shia nation right next door to the world’s only Shia power, Iran?
Hindsight is 20/20. If you read back in the archives far enough, you’ll see that I defended W and the invasion for a couple years, at least. But I know for a fact that some inside the Pentagon argued against invading Iraq in 2002 and 2003. They foresaw the consequences. But the neocons knew better.
In 2003, there were 1.5 million Christians in Iraq. Today, there may be fewer than 200,000. Most of that death and exodus occurred while American soldiers were in the country. The people still in the country mostly do without power and running water — except in the Green Zone, where government officials divert public money to build mansions for themselves. Hence the protests over the weekend.
Barack Obama’s foreign policy legacy will be among the worst in American history but you can’t put Iraq on him. This is on George W. Bush and the neocons. And Donald Trump’s repudiation of their worldview is in part why he will be the Republican candidate for president.