MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

After America sheds its blood and tears to liberate Iraq from a ruthless tyrant, a ‘free and democratic’ Iraq turns around and supports its freedom-hating, ruthless, tyrannical anti-American neighbors. Now that up to 3 trillion dollars has been spent on Iraq, it looks like America may have virtually nothing to show for it in the end …

By Joby Warrick – “More than six months after the start of the Syrian uprising, Iraq is offering key moral and financial support to the country’s embattled president, undermining a central U.S. policy objective and raising fresh concerns that Iraq is drifting further into the orbit of an American arch rival — Iran.

Iraq’s stance has dealt an embarrassing setback to the Obama administration, which has sought to enlist Muslim allies in its campaign to isolate Syrian autocrat Bashar al-Assad. While other Arab states have downgraded ties with Assad, Iraq has moved in the opposite direction, hosting official visits by Syrians, signing pacts to expand business ties and offering political support.

After Iraq sent conflicting signals about its support for Assad last month, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki spoke firmly against regime change in Syria in an interview broadcast on Iraqi television Sept. 30. ‘We believe that Syria will be able to overcome its crisis through reforms,’ Maliki said, rejecting U.S. calls for the Syrian leader to step down. His words echoed those of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who weeks earlier proposed that Syrians should ‘implement the necessary reforms by themselves.’

On other issues as well, the Maliki government in recent months has hewed closer to Iran’s stance — Iraq, for example, has supported Iran’s right to nuclear technology and advocated U.N. membership for Palestinians — as the U.S. military races to complete its troop withdrawal over the coming months.

Few policy objectives are more important to Iran than preserving the pro-Tehran regime in Syria, longtime Middle East observers say.

‘This is Iran’s influence, because preserving the Assad regime is very much in Iran’s national interest,’ said David Pollock, a former adviser on Middle East policy for the State Department during the George W. Bush administration. ‘Iran needs Iraq’s help trying to save their ally in Damascus.'” Read more.

Iraq threatens to break military links with US – “Baghdad is threatening to break its military relations with Washington at the end of this year and use private contractors to train its armed forces, as the two sides struggle to agree on terms that would see a small number of American troops remain in Iraq next year. The two sides have agreed in principle that several thousand US troops should stay in Iraq in a training capacity after the official end of the American mission at the end of the year, but they have become bogged down over whether to grant US troops immunity from prosecution if they commit crimes.” Read more.