Is the most powerful man in Iraq an Iranian?
Is the most powerful man in Iraq an Iranian?
McClatchy reports that one of “the most powerful men in Iraq isn’t an Iraqi government official, a militia leader, a senior cleric or a top U.S. military commander or diplomat.” “Tehran’s point man in Iraq” is Brig. Gen. Qassem Suleimani, who commands the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. Suleimani has “ensured the elections of pro-Iranian politicians, met frequently with senior Iraqi leaders and backed Shiite elements in the Iraqi security forces that are accused of torturing and killing minority Sunni Muslims.” He has also:
–Slipped into Baghdad’s Green Zone, the heavily fortified seat of the U.S. occupation and the Iraqi government, in April 2006 to try to orchestrate the selection of a new Iraqi prime minister. Iraqi officials said that audacious visit was Suleimani’s only foray into the Green Zone; American officials said he may have been there more than once.
– Built powerful networks that gather intelligence on American and Iraqi military operations. Suleimani’s network includes every senior staffer in Iran’s embassy in Baghdad, beginning with the ambassador, according to Iraqi and U.S. officials.
– Trained and directed Shiite Muslim militias and given them cash and arms, including mortars and rockets fired at the U.S. Embassy and explosively formed penetrators, or EFPs, the sophisticated roadside bombs that have caused hundreds of U.S. and Iraqi casualties.
“The United States has struggled, without much success, to cripple Suleimani’s operations in Iraq,” McClatchy notes. “Suleimani’s role in Iraq illustrates how President Bush’s decision to topple Saddam has enabled Shiite, Persian Iran to extend its influence in Iraq.”
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Bush’s destabilization of the middle-east marches on. This is not only a failed presidency in the sense that Bush has accomplished nothing domestically (with the exception of making his friends wealthier), but “his war” has set things in motion in the middle-east that the world will suffer from for decades to come (if the world survives that long).
April 28th, 2008 at 9:33 pmDamn he does look like George Clooney.
April 28th, 2008 at 9:51 pmyes! it does look like clooney… after a ROUGH night!
April 28th, 2008 at 10:13 pmzooey here to defend his honor in 3, 2, 1 …
April 28th, 2008 at 10:14 pmMore evidence that we should drop nukes on Baghdad, Tehran, Moscow, Beijing, PyongYang, and Sri Lanka. Why Sri Lanka? They might do something, someday, to piss us off.
April 28th, 2008 at 10:17 pmAre you guys saying Clooney had a rough night with Zooey?
April 28th, 2008 at 10:19 pmJust about the only thing Bush has succeeded at is turning Iraq into a client state of Iran, at the cost of severely degrading our military assets and trashing our reputation around the world.
April 28th, 2008 at 10:19 pmNo one could have predicted ….
April 28th, 2008 at 10:20 pmoh hahaha! no! … well, not necessarily… who knows? come to think of it…
i just recall her fondness of the man, and wouldn’t think she’d want him
compared to this guy…
…
anyone else see the threads below perino all underlined?
TP having tech problems again?
April 28th, 2008 at 10:23 pmClooney? Are you all cracked. I don’t even have tv and I recognize this guy as that dopey guy from one of those multitude of CSI spinoffs or wait a minute maybe he was that dopey guy in that Law and Order spinoff. Yes definately the Law and Order guy
April 28th, 2008 at 10:42 pmSince the comments have expanded the topic to the general longterm cost of the invasion and occupation, be sure to read Why The US Has Gone Broke. Nice explanation of what happens when the US spends over $1 trillion/year on military expenses, all borrowed — and what DOES NOT happen when that money isn’t invested in more productive sectors of the economy.
April 28th, 2008 at 10:52 pm“…President Bush’s decision to topple Saddam has enabled Shiite, Persian Iran to extend its influence in Iraq.”
But nobody could have predicted!
April 28th, 2008 at 10:56 pmJeez, blogenfreude, we should coordinate. I’m so embarrassed.
But the line is pithy, and endlessly applicable, no?
April 28th, 2008 at 10:57 pmOh — he DOES look like George Clooney.
And yes, the Middle East experts predicted that removing the Sunni power from Iraq would empower Iran in the region.
Turns out those elitists with their knowledge of cultures and languages and history and politics in the Middle East were right. Astounding, eh?
April 28th, 2008 at 11:00 pmSo Bush Jr can’t even keep the head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard out of the most heavily fortified area in Iraq, the Green Zone.
Nor has Condi “Shopping For Shoes & Watching Broadway Plays Instead Of Coordinating Offers Of Help From Abroad During And Immediately After Katrina” Rice ensured housing adequate to withstand the daily bomb & missile barrages for the State Dept Personnel she’s pressuring to station in the US Embassy and the Green Zone.
Nor has Ahmed “We Are Heroes In Error” Chalabi been able to restore basic services and utilities in Baghdad to their pre-invasion status.
With such stellar leadership like these three have shown, is there any doubt about “absolute victory with honor” at some point in the next 1000 or so years?
And no doubt the voters will richly reward the GOP for still sticking with Bush Jr and the “Catastrophic Success” his Iraq & counter-terrorist policies have brought about at the price of a properly rested, armored and deployed military personnel.
Even more doubtless will be how the GOP actually takes the Majority Party Status again, with voters rewarding the party for it’s deft handling and concern of the economic worries of everyone but those already at the top of the political and economic ladder.
Unfortunately for the GOP here on Planet Earth, the above will only result for the Bizarro World GOP.
The Planet Earth GOP is going to get crushed even worse come Election Day 2008 than it suffered in 2006, and not all the rigged Diebold machines can change that outcome or reality.
April 28th, 2008 at 11:48 pmSo?
April 29th, 2008 at 12:51 am.
This means BushCo was correct…
Iran IS the biggest threat to the stabilization of the area, not the presence of US troops.
FOUR MORE SURGES…
STAY THE COURSE…
BOMB, BOMB, BOMB, BOMB-BOMB IRAN…
Wipe THEM off the face of the planet to show them who means what… humph!
Please wake me when the rapture happens.
.
April 29th, 2008 at 1:19 amOnly problem my friend is…American ficundity is inadequate for the task…of providing cannon fodder.
April 29th, 2008 at 1:22 amApril 29th, 2008 at 1:28 am
Go on Max! Go and Bomb Iran and you ‘will see with how many sticks you make a conoe’! Iraq had no WMD, and its army was destroyed from a decade of UN (US/UK) sanctions that killed millions of inocent iraqis. This criminal administration said Iraq would be a piece of cake and it would last weeks! Go on and Bomb Iran… you looser! It is like giveing a last ‘wack’ on a wasp nest!
April 29th, 2008 at 1:33 amMax your staements…Have given Pro Choice …all the validity in the world…Too bad your mother didn’t get the word.
April 29th, 2008 at 1:38 amYou just don’t get it do you…We are the largest consumers of oil and Dope in the world.
April 29th, 2008 at 1:54 amOk Afghanistan produces 90% of the Heroin on the market (Google it)…and they are now embarking on Marijuana (Google that too!)
Guess we really bought into this one.
We trained the Mujahadeen, how to fight the Russians, and tought them what we learned in Nam on how to fund arms purchases(dope), now the same fingers are pointed at us!
They didnt like occupiers then, and I guess they feel the same way now.
Wasn’t Maliki complaining just the other day about his neighbors not stepping up to help out?
April 29th, 2008 at 8:16 amThe accusations aren’t particularly credible.
Remember how we were told that the EFP explosives were made in Iran, and we knew that because they were so sophisticated that they had to be manufactured in Iran and we knew they were supplied by Iran because they were used by Iran backed militias and we knew they were Iran backed militias because they were using Iranian supplied weapons (how’s that for circular reasoning) then we found factories actually making the shaped charges and EFPs IN IRAQ?
But even if somehow the Bush administration accidentally released something approaching the truth, that would still make this guy the second most powerful Iranian in Iraq, after Al-Sistani.
April 29th, 2008 at 8:50 amIt is such a predictable assertion that I have made an acronym: “N-CHEAT.” Nobody Could Have Ever Anticipated This/That…
April 29th, 2008 at 9:00 amGee, if I had the Great Satan bombing my neighbors’ country into the stone age, I’d be doing everything I could to disrupt Satan’s holiday! Can anyone blame Iran for supplying anti-American forces in Iraq? Seems logical to do what they are accused of doing…
April 29th, 2008 at 10:06 am>>A…..and they are now embarking on Marijuana (Google that too!)<<
FINALLY!
Some GOOD news out of Afghanistan!
Keep those Taliban and other extremist types puffin’ away, I gaurantee you’ll see a drop in violence. No surge or more troops required.
April 29th, 2008 at 10:06 amWhere are our Suleimani’s? Oh, I forgot, they were retired by Bushco so they could spend more time with their children.
April 29th, 2008 at 11:05 am