Iraqi protesters, some dressed in uniforms identifying them as members of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) militias forced their way into the US Embassy in Baghdad on Tuesday, throwing rocks and chanting “death to America!“
Details are still emerging, and while there was gunfire heard from the embassy, there are no report of any casualties so far. The protesters are retaliating over Sunday’s US airstrikes against PMU bases in Iraq and Syria.
The US State Department downplayed the matter, declaring the site “secure” despite the rising smoke and guys storming it. The military is also planning to send more troops to the embassy to “ensure our right of self defense.”
Iraqi PM Adil Abdul-Mahdi who resigned but has yet to be replaced, issued his own statement urging everyone to leave the embassy and calm down. There are no signs that is working. And while the State Department says they are holding Iraq responsible for protecting the embassy, President Trump issued his own Tweet blaming Iran for the entire matter.
The US attacks on the PMU were predicated on the idea that the PMU was behind an attack on an Iraqi military base, where a US contractor was killed. The PMU is part of Iraq’s security forces, and denied being behind it, and threatened to retaliate over US attacks on them.
President Trump, and indeed US officials in general, have struggled with the idea that the PMU are Iraqi militias, and have repeatedly called them “Iranian.” This was also the case today when Trump’s Tweet blamed Iran for the base attack and the embassy protest. Since protesters burned down one of the Iranian Consulates in Iraq just a few weeks prior, it seems the US is massively overestimating Iran’s control over the situation there.
POTUS widens the conflict by accusing Iran….without any proof, for the mess the US has created in the first place.
The figurehead for the ” it’s not my fault” generation…
exactly
the mess the US has created in the first place
It’s not a bug, it’s a feature:
“There is this theme that some suggest that the president’s strategy that we allowed isn’t working. I would argue just the converse of that. I would argue that what you are seeing here is a direct result of us reversing the enormous failure of the JCPOA.”
-SecState Mike Pompeo
https://www.businessinsider.com/pompeo-inadvertently-admits-iran-crisis-is-trump-fault-2019-9
The Neocons always F it up
Good riddance. Burn that f**ker down.
Aw, spanky finally got to use a wall….
When they were building the embassy, I remarked, I hope they have a good helipad on the roof.. Looks like they are going to need it.
Just insane!!!
POTUS twitter.
Iran will be held fully responsible for lives lost, or damage incurred, at any of our facilities. They will pay a very BIG PRICE! This is not a Warning, it is a Threat. Happy New Year!
If you are in this kind of fantastic boxing match you must punch or get KO-ed.
Looks like your brain took to many punches.
Within minutes, Washington blamed Iran. Reality is, Pentagon has not a clue as to who did it.
I an struggling with why people struggle with PMU. People are Iraqi citizens, units are part of Iraqi armed forces. What makes them Iranian? Because they are Shia? From now on, any Catholic individual or Catholic majority nation commuting violent or morally questionable acts — should be blamed in Vatican.
For Trump, support for conflict Iran is not there. Time to wee or get off the potty .
You’re quite right about the Pentagon’s not having a clue as to who did it. By Washington, you mean the Trotskyists who control Congress and the White House. It’s these Trotskyists who blamed Iran within minutes of the attack that killed an American contractor.
For all we know, that rocket attack could’ve been a false flag to get the US to retaliate against those Shia militias who didn’t launch that rocket attack in the first place. Most of us know who pulls these false flags in the Middle East and elsewhere .. That country’s notorious for them.
The militias are no more Iranian than they are US… both the US and Iran have ties to and support the Iraqi military. And did you notice how little evidence the US claimed to have that this particular militia did the recent attack that killed an American? “Similar to” other attacks that they attributed to the militia. That’s what America does, if we are attacked we lash out 10x, and it matters little if that reaction is directed to an existing enemy or one which we have now created.
This is kind of like the protestors in Hong Kong isn’t it?
Least we forget, Iraq is a sovereign nation that the US invaded under false pretenses, twice! The Iraqis say we’re out, we’re out, unless we are going to occupy the country and rule it without consent of the Iraqis. We are there to steal oil and to make sure it sells in dollars and that’s all. We are thieves!