(#BREAKING: Iraq’s Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi orders Iraqi soldiers to take down Kurdistan’s flag in Kirkuk city.)
What happens when the United States enters a war, creates havoc, spends billions upon billions of dollars, and sacrifices treasured American lives in places like Iraq?
As the world knows, we eventually make a decision to cut ties and walk.
We did it in Vietnam, recently we did it in Iraq, and sooner or later, we will do it in Afghanistan.
The most critical question needed to be asked is what happens when we walk away?
When we enter another nation’s sovereign territory through either overt or covert means and destroy their government, it is almost certain in today’s day and age, we do so leaving the place, and region, in chaos.
Don’t believe me? Look what immediately followed in Vietnam and its surrounding region. Most recently, look at Libya.
This isn’t about Libya, Vietnam, nor is it about what is likely soon to come in the land of the Pashtun aka Afghanistan.
This is about Iraq, more specifically Kurdistan, and the current situation unraveling.
Immediately upon shutting down major US led military operations in Iraq, President Obama released a lion in what was once considered Saddam Hussein’s nation. Simply put, we left Iraq as a puppet nation to Iran.
For many Americans, it was time to leave Iraq. But what few realized is what would result if we left when we did. And today, those very Americans are deeply troubled by President Trump and his foreign policies — especially those founded within the Middle East.
Many Americans are confused about the recent Iran deal in which Trump has threatened to “decertify.”
The vast majority of Americans simply look at the deal in the vein of Iranian nuclear developments. Unfortunately, the deal far exceeds nuclear ambitions but rather extends to its entire military advancements including but not limited to international small arms sales.
In recent years, Iran maintained its eyes on Iraq.
Iranian Revolutionary Guard leadership has worked and continues to work closely with Iraqi government officials.
Al Quds Forces continuously work close with the Iraqi military. Some reports demonstrated Al Quds Forces infiltrating Iraqi military units being trained by Americans just to collect intelligence. And, as Bloomberg reported in 2015, Iranian backed Shiite groups have gone so far as shared a joint US-Iraqi military base.
And today, Iraqi military units, fully supported and backed by Iranian military elements, are fighting relentlessly in what many consider the historical Kurdish capital of Kirkuk.
As this is being published, video has surfaced of Iraqi military accompanied by Hashd al-Shaabi (an Iranian backed Shiite militant group) allegedly seizing Kirkuk as they take down the Kurdish flag and raise that of Iraq’s.
https://www.facebook.com/RudawEnglish/videos/1465410790233486/
Of most interest, the recent Iraqi military operation on Kirkuk has taken place just two weeks after the death of President Jalal Talabani — the 6th President of Iraq and the former leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan — and coincidentally, during a time when Kurdistan voted on a referendum of independence.
Regretfully, the United States has a very long history of turning its backs on the Kurdish people.
Immediately upon the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the Kurds stood up and granted the United States and our military forces safe haven in their disputed region. By accounts of US personnel, Kurdistan was the safest place in all of Iraq during that time.
The Kurds felt secured for the first time in many years. They grew a sense of belief in the United States and our government upon witnessing one of their own take office in 2005 (President Jalal Talabani) whom maintained office until 2014.
We worked extremely close with Talabani and considered him a true ally. But things quickly changed immediately upon his term expiring.
Iran saw an opportunity, a major opportunity, to conduct more in-depth influence operations through soft and hard power initiatives. They were always there and any troop who ever fought in Iraq knows this. But in 2014, Iran bumped up their game.
Today, Iraq could easily be considered Iran’s new found child — a child the United States simply put out on the street and left for whomever to care for it.
It was a major mistake. A mistake so grave, the one and only region once considered safe during US led military operations is now on the brink of total annihilation should the United Sates fail to intervene.
Unfortunately, US intervention will likely not occur and if any effort exists to assist the Kurds today, it will be a half-assed effort with limited resources.
But, arguably, it is one reason why President Trump seeks to decertify the Iran deal.
If you believe in world humanity, you should be outraged.
Become outraged the US media is not making today’s event in Kirkuk major breaking news.
Be outraged the US once again failed in keeping true to a friendship among those who once granted us safe-haven.
Become outraged the US has allowed our enemy to take over a nation which we once freed from an incredibly evil dictator.
Be outraged, that as of right now, it appears as though Kurdistan is no more.
Be outraged that Iran, contrary to many dimwitted American perceptions, has used an opportunity that was basically handed to them by the United States and the international community at large to destroy one of the last remaining ethnic groups friendly toward the United States which is founded in the heart of the Levant.