Looking the Wrong Way on Iran

by Shoshana Bryen  •  June 27, 2017 at 4:00 am

• How will Iraq get rid of the Iranians? Or will it? The chief of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), Qassem Soleimani, has been seen several times in Iraq, most recently near the Syrian border, an indication that Iran has bigger plans than the liberation of Mosul.
• The Sunni part of Iraq actually is an essential part of the land bridge being built from Iran to the Mediterranean Sea. There is a second and equally compelling issue for Iran to the southwest: encircling Saudi Arabia in the water.
• If Iran is allowed to solidify its Shiite Crescent and its naval obstructionism, American allies across the Middle East and North Africa will pay a heavy price.

The chief of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), Qassem Soleimani, has been seen several times in Iraq, most recently near the Syrian border, an indication that Iran has bigger plans than the liberation of Mosul. (Image source: Mahmoud Hosseini/Wikimedia Commons)

We have been looking in the wrong direction. While the West was hoping temporarily to check Iran's nuclear aspirations, Iran was making plans to advance on the ground and in the water -- and the plans are unfolding nicely. For Iran.

After the U.S. withdrew from Iraq in 2011, large swaths of Iraqi territory were easily brought under Islamic State (ISIS) control, culminating in the proclamation in 2014 of "The Caliphate" with its seat in Mosul. Having denigrated its capabilities as "the JV team," the Obama administration was desperate to get rid of ISIS, but the Iraqi army (trained and armed at a cost of $26 billion between 2006 and 2015 with another $1.6 billion spent in 2016) was unable to handle the job, even with American air power and Kurdish fighters as allies.

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