U. S. forces have been asked to leave Iraq. Michael R. Gordon, David S. Cloud, and Elena Cherney report in the Wall Street Journal:
Iraq’s prime minister said the U.S.-led military coalition that has been helping his country fight Islamic State militants is no longer needed, though he still wants strong ties with Washington.
“We believe the justifications for the international coalition have ended,†Prime Minister Mohammed al-Sudani told The Wall Street Journal, as the war in Gaza frays Iraqi relations with Washington.
I have no way of knowing, of course, but I can’t help but suspect that U. S. forces attacking Houthi positions directly has brought the “fraying” of relations between the U. S. and Iraq to the tipping point.
Iran has the largest number of its citizens professing Shi’a Islam of any country in the world. In the Arab world the largest number are in Iraq and Shi’ite Muslims comprise a majority of the population there. After Iraq is Yemen.
The fracture between Sunni Islam and Shi’a Islam goes back almost to the very beginnings of the religion, i.e. it’s nearly 1,400 years old. Our disagreements with Iraq, followed by our support for the Saud family’s war against Yemen, and now our direct attacks on Houthis has inserted the United States into a more than millennia old religious conflict.
My own view is that it is imprudent of us to take a side in that conflict but we have done so willy-nilly. That decision may well have run-on effects and this may be one of them.
Certainly the region is on a slow boil. Now Pakistan and Iran are firing missiles at each other.
It’s hard to imagine a war between Pakistan and Iran. Their GDPs are about the same but Iran’s per capita GDP is considerably greater than Pakistan’s. And, of course, Pakistan has nuclear weapons.
War between the two might push Iran over the nuclear threshold. The Israelis would not be amused.
Cynics point out that Iran attacked Paki separatists, and Pakistan attacked Irani separatists, both groups being Balochi nationalists. So it looks you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.
The Iranians and Pakistanis had held high level talks a day or before the missile strikes.