Speaking today in an interview with France 24, Iraqi Prime Minister Hayder Abadi said he would welcome Russian military involvement against ISIS on Iraqi soil, and that while the two nations hadn’t discussed the matter yet, Iraq was eager for more partners.
Abadi suggested he was waiting for Russia to ask, but Russian government spokesmen suggested the opposite, saying they would “consider” involvement in Iraq if asked, but at present had no plan to extend their strikes against ISIS outside of neighboring Syria.
Russia made a deal with Iraq over the weekend on forming an information sharing pact, which will include Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Russia. The US was also invited to contribute to this Baghdad-based information center, but the US has rejected the offer so far, and is said to be scaling back existing information sharing with Iraq.
The deal will also have Russian surveillance planes flying over Iraq to track the movement of ISIS in the area around the Syrian border, though at this point Russia is suggesting that’s where their Iraq involvement stops. Much as with the US initially starting their ISIS war in Iraq and eventually expanding into Syria, however, Russia may ultimately follow suit, since ISIS territory spans both Iraq and Syria, and the border between the two at this point is largely meaningless.
The USA is clearly playing both sides in this debacle. ISIS is its creature, though the franchise has been passed on to local handlers in the Gulf States. The earlier American bombing campaign was never really serious, but used as a lever to prise ISIS away from attacking the Kurds and focus them against Damascus. Similarly in Iraq the goal was minimal simply to prevent ISIS taking Baghdad, but to keep them strong enough of a threat to act as the US diplomatic knife over the government there.
The end game as perceived by the Pentagon is to force Assad to give up his backing for Hezbollah and break up the last remaining Arab state that deters Israel's ambitions. Never mind all the hoopla about democracy and peace, about which they don't give one hoot. The US has been defunding its own sock puppets for some time, and is now leaving the regime change field completely to its Gulf State clients – who are 100% behind the far more effective jihadists.
These jihadi guys also know how to play the bigger, heavier armed, shortsighted and disunited players one off against the other, getting more independent and assertive with their own crazed agenda every day. So does the dog wag the tail or is it the other way around?
And now with Russia's involvement in both Iraq and Syria, there exists the absurd possibility that the US will actually end up in a war with Russia to defend its sometime cats' paws, ISIS and al Nusra (no doubt we will be told they are 'defending the moderate rebels from evil, megalomaniac Putin' when this calamity occurs). The crisis yet to come may initially materialize as an unfortunate military incident that leads directly to catastrophe, or more likely a slow-fuse diplomatic one involving the Gulf States, Israel or Turkey, and leaving the USA trapped by its own fatal regional meddling into 'showing its strength' on behalf of its local 'allies'.
If this occurs, there will be no way out for the empire except to launch WW3.
Brilliant! The more Putin bogs himself down, the better!
Iraq appears to have more confidence in the Russian military effectiveness than the halfhearted ineffective actions of the Americans.