Facing a debacle in Iraq, the US turns for help to Iran
18 June 2014
With the eruption of civil war in Iraq, the foreign policy of the United States has suffered a shipwreck of massive dimensions, with far-reaching political implications.
On Monday, as Islamist forces increased their control over significant parts of Iraq, US Secretary of State John Kerry turned to Iran for assistance. Washington is “open to discussions” with Tehran, he said, adding that he would “not rule out anything that would be constructive.”
The appeal came as the Obama administration announced a partial evacuation of the US embassy in Baghdad, the largest and most expensive embassy in the world, constructed following the 2003 invasion.
The turn to Iran testifies to the extent of the debacle in Iraq. Just this past February, Kerry was denouncing Iran for continuing to support Syrian President Bashar Al Assad as the US financed an insurgency led by the same Islamic fundamentalist forces currently threatening the Iraqi regime of Nouri al-Maliki. Now Kerry is seeking Iran’s assistance in staving off a disaster in a country the US invaded more than eleven years ago.
For 35 years, since the 1979 Iranian Revolution toppled the Shah, hostility toward Iran has been a central pillar of US policy in the Middle East. During the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s, the Reagan administration financed and aided Saddam Hussein against his regional competitor.
In his 2002 State of the Union address, President George W. Bush denounced Iran as part of the “Axis of Evil,” while Washington and its allies made clear that the invasion of Iraq, which took place in 2003, was only a prelude to a US invasion and occupation of Iran. In 2003, a senior British official described the views prevalent in the Bush administration: “Everyone wants to go to Baghdad. Real men want to go to Tehran.”
Exploiting the issue of Iran’s nuclear program, the US has relentlessly targeted the country, imposing devastating sanctions and working with Israel to murder its scientists and wreak havoc on its industrial infrastructure.
Just one year ago, the Obama administration was on the verge of bombing Syria, in large part for the purpose of further isolating Iran and depriving it of a major ally in the Middle East. In fomenting civil war in Syria, the US and its monarchical Gulf allies backed various Al Qaeda affiliates, including the Sunni extremist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS). When the defeats suffered by Washington’s far-right Sunni Islamist proxies in Syria drove it to the negotiating table last year, it insisted that Iran could not attend the talks.
While there have been tentative moves toward a rapprochement with Iran since elections last year, the current turn constitutes a stunning reversal.
US foreign policy is collapsing under the weight of the contradictions that have built up over decades of bloody wars across the region. Having recklessly turned to various subsidiaries of Al Qaeda in an attempt to topple Assad, Washington was apparently blindsided when ISIS changed targets, rampaging through Iraq and attacking Washington’s Shiite puppet regime there.
The 2003-2011 US war in Iraq, as pursued by both the Bush and Obama administrations, involved a vast and criminal squandering of human life, American as well as Iraqi. Combined with the US decision to oversee the arming of forces like ISIS, which makes a mockery of Washington’s claims to be fighting a “war on terror” against Al Qaeda, the US subjugation of Iraq has set the stage for a new, even more devastating bloodbath in the Middle East.
18 June 2014
With the eruption of civil war in Iraq, the foreign policy of the United States has suffered a shipwreck of massive dimensions, with far-reaching political implications.
On Monday, as Islamist forces increased their control over significant parts of Iraq, US Secretary of State John Kerry turned to Iran for assistance. Washington is “open to discussions” with Tehran, he said, adding that he would “not rule out anything that would be constructive.”
The appeal came as the Obama administration announced a partial evacuation of the US embassy in Baghdad, the largest and most expensive embassy in the world, constructed following the 2003 invasion.
The turn to Iran testifies to the extent of the debacle in Iraq. Just this past February, Kerry was denouncing Iran for continuing to support Syrian President Bashar Al Assad as the US financed an insurgency led by the same Islamic fundamentalist forces currently threatening the Iraqi regime of Nouri al-Maliki. Now Kerry is seeking Iran’s assistance in staving off a disaster in a country the US invaded more than eleven years ago.
For 35 years, since the 1979 Iranian Revolution toppled the Shah, hostility toward Iran has been a central pillar of US policy in the Middle East. During the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s, the Reagan administration financed and aided Saddam Hussein against his regional competitor.
In his 2002 State of the Union address, President George W. Bush denounced Iran as part of the “Axis of Evil,” while Washington and its allies made clear that the invasion of Iraq, which took place in 2003, was only a prelude to a US invasion and occupation of Iran. In 2003, a senior British official described the views prevalent in the Bush administration: “Everyone wants to go to Baghdad. Real men want to go to Tehran.”
Exploiting the issue of Iran’s nuclear program, the US has relentlessly targeted the country, imposing devastating sanctions and working with Israel to murder its scientists and wreak havoc on its industrial infrastructure.
Just one year ago, the Obama administration was on the verge of bombing Syria, in large part for the purpose of further isolating Iran and depriving it of a major ally in the Middle East. In fomenting civil war in Syria, the US and its monarchical Gulf allies backed various Al Qaeda affiliates, including the Sunni extremist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS). When the defeats suffered by Washington’s far-right Sunni Islamist proxies in Syria drove it to the negotiating table last year, it insisted that Iran could not attend the talks.
While there have been tentative moves toward a rapprochement with Iran since elections last year, the current turn constitutes a stunning reversal.
US foreign policy is collapsing under the weight of the contradictions that have built up over decades of bloody wars across the region. Having recklessly turned to various subsidiaries of Al Qaeda in an attempt to topple Assad, Washington was apparently blindsided when ISIS changed targets, rampaging through Iraq and attacking Washington’s Shiite puppet regime there.
The 2003-2011 US war in Iraq, as pursued by both the Bush and Obama administrations, involved a vast and criminal squandering of human life, American as well as Iraqi. Combined with the US decision to oversee the arming of forces like ISIS, which makes a mockery of Washington’s claims to be fighting a “war on terror” against Al Qaeda, the US subjugation of Iraq has set the stage for a new, even more devastating bloodbath in the Middle East.
