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History is often told as written by the conqueror. But in the age of the internet and digital communication that can no longer be a steadfast rule. Delving into a not so recent past, I wonder if state-sponsored terrorism has ever commanded the headlines that it deserves. Lets take a look at Iraq.

The Iraq of today is still searching for a definition. The people are not much better off than they were under the previous warlord. The breakdown of Iraq led to a splintering of communal groups, some who went on to infamy in the form of Daesh and other bandits. Killings continue, albeit on a smaller scale, and the determination of the people to get the present-day occupiers, which now include Iran, out strengthens daily in its resolution.

In todays dynamic world, yesterdays news is fast becoming a fading memory, and yet can we not remember what it was that started this all? Wasnt it those notorious weapons of mass destruction that were on everybodys lipsthe reason to enter and destroy? Wasnt evidence tabled in front of the UN Security Council justifying possession of such weaponry by Iraq? Where did it all go?

Polls at the time showed that most Americans werent too concerned whether this evidence would ever be discovered. They had moved on to other items on their agenda. The soap opera that transfixed a nation during the months of March and April of 2003 had run out of steam, to be replaced with other more intriguing serials. Iraq became a distant dot on the map, and as long as it did not interfere with their daily lives today, so be it.

And yet it was Bush and Blair then who sold the war launched in March 2003 to an unaware public based on their evidence that Iraq had massive quantities of WMD, with the sole intention of carrying out an attack against the United States or its allies. Calculated domestic threat levels escalating at intermittent intervals only helped increase the sense of fear and Armageddon.

And when France and a few others voiced concern over dubious and fabricated evidence presented before the world body, and in their judgement thought best to let the UN inspectors continue, then they too were singled out as the collaborators or the enemy. French fries suddenly became Freedom Fries.

And so, after countless sorties and thousands of bombs, and estimates that range anywhere from 500,000 to a million civilians and military personnel dead in Iraq, there still was no WMD. Add to the count are the millions who were rendered homeless and stateless as a result of the war, and a hornets nest had been stirred up that slowly ran out of control.

Iraq oil and reconstruction

Was it about the oil? Oil that the US and the British quickly claimed as their own in their brazen resolution put forth at the UN allowing them to disperse of it as they saw fit in the interest of rebuilding Iraq. And those nations that still had reservations were bullied into voting for it or else.

What led to the death of the innocent? Where were all those WMDs poised to strike at the heartland of America or the UK? According to the Guardian, An unnamed intelligence official told the BBC that the key claim in the September 2002 dossier that Iraq could launch a chemical or biological attack within 45 minutes of an order had been inserted on the instructions of officials at No 10. Downing Street had to match Bushs evidence for this plan of naked aggression to work.

There was never any world-threatening WMD to begin with, for Saddam would have certainly used them in a last stand. And what relics of weaponry Iraq possessed had come from none other than the US and the UK, major arms suppliers to Iraq during the 80s.

Was the Dresden-style mass bombardment of Baghdad and destruction of Iraq really meant to exact revenge for the event of 9/11 and to send a message of shock and awe throughout the Muslim nation?

Events in Iraq following the 2003 invasion which were bluntly termed as an illegal war by the late King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia spawned a whole series of events that eventually led to unrest in several Arab countries that today are still embroiled in turmoil.

Did the end justify the means? Were the 2003 occupiers any better than the oppressors they had replaced? Bush Jr. and Blair are today looked upon as retired and respected politicians. Countless Iraqi civilians died and many remain maimed today because of their non-existent WMD drum rolls. On whose conscience shall those deaths and disabilities dwell upon?

Tariq A. Al Maeena is a Saudi socio-political commentator. He lives in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Twitter: @talmaeena

Read more:
How Gulf War destabilised Iraq and the region - Gulf News

(MENAFN - Iraq Business News) By Michael Knights and Alex Almeida, for the Combating Terrorism Center . Any opinions expressed are those of the author(s), and do not necessarily reflect the views of Iraq Business News .

Remaining and Expanding: The Recovery of Islamic State Operations in Iraq in 2019-2020

The Islamic State has recovered from its territorial defeats since 2017 to mount a strong and sustained resurgence as an insurgent force inside Iraq.

A new analysis of attack metrics from the past 18 months paints a picture of an Islamic State insurgency that has regained its balance, spread out across many more areas, and reclaimed significant tactical proficiency.

Now operating at the same levels it achieved in 2012, a number of factors suggest that the Islamic State could further ramp up its rural insurgency in 2020 and 2021.

An input of experienced cadres from Syria, a downturn in Iraqi and coalition effectiveness, and now the disruption of a combined COVID and economic crisis will likely all feed into an escalating campaign of attrition against the Iraqi state, military, and tribes.

Full report here.

(Source: Combating Terrorism Center)

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The Recovery of IS Operations in Iraq in 2019-2020 - MENAFN.COM

The third time was the charm. After six months of uncertainty and chaos, last week Iraqs parliament finally confirmed Mustafa al-Kadhimi, the third nominee for the post, as prime minister. Kadhimi faces a pandemic, plummeting oil prices, ISIS remnants, and a simmering anti-corruption movement that has had hundreds of its demonstrators killed by security forces. The last thing he needs is a proxy war on his soil.

A few thousand U.S. troops remain in Iraq today, despite being hamstrung by both the coronavirus pandemic and the force protection measures that followed Januarys flare up in tensions with Iran. These troops are a liability, not an asset: bottled up on big bases, they are hostages to Iranian military power in the region. The U.S. presence in Iraq enables Iran to escalate at will, with at least some deniability via its Iraqi proxies in the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) militias.

At the tactical level, trading missiles with Iranian proxies is a fight America should avoid. Last month the Pentagon conducted operational planning to destroy the Iran-sponsored Kataib Hezbollah militia a task that is not achievable without enormous U.S. military escalation on the soil of an American partner. The U.S. commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Robert P. White, bluntly warned against just that.

Iran also gets a lopsided return on its investment in Iraqi surrogates. A U.S. Special Forces soldier costs over $1 million to recruit, train and equip. A brand new Marine infantryman has at least $45,000 invested in him. But the obsolescent Katyusha rockets being flung at U.S. outposts in Iraq can be had for $450. The militiamen who set them off also come cheap. With ample recruits available to the PMF, a war of attrition is one the United States will not win, even against a plague-ravaged, economically wrecked Iran.

Further fighting in Iraq is also a dangerous distraction for the United States. The Islamic State, which justified the U.S. military presence in the first place, has been reduced to dead-enders in rural redoubts. The United States has invested fifteen years in training Iraqi security forces; Baghdad should be able to extinguish Islamic State remnants on its own.

As even former Trump administration officials have publicly warned, any further conflict in the Middle East is a distraction from countering Americas only major adversary: China. This is doubly true today, with coronavirus-stricken aircraft carriers tied up in port, the Department of Defense still struggling with how to handle the pandemic, and American allies preoccupied with their own borders and public health measures.

The long-term cost of remaining in Iraq is even more dire: further entrenching Iranian power in Baghdad.

The original sin of the U.S. invasion in 2003 handed Iran predominance in its neighbors affairs. Though opposed by many Iraqi Kurds, Sunni Arabs, and even many Shia, Iran has enormous influence in Iraq. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the security forces.

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The PMF themselves are part of the Iraqi state, receiving over $2 billion in government funding last year and reporting directly to the prime minister. Mustered by a fatwa from Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani in 2014, the PMF are justly considered heroes in Iraq. Together with Kurdish peshmerga and Iraqs Counter-Terrorism Service, the PMF destroyed the Islamic State in Iraq through a grinding three-year campaign of urban warfare.

There is only one instrument likely to reverse Iranian influence in Iraq: the triumph of genuine Iraqi nationalism. There have been stirrings of this, especially in the wave of the anti-corruption protests that have only recently hit a lull. The rhetoric of the enigmatic Muqtada al-Sadr, an enemy of the U.S. occupation but now a sometime opponent of Iranian influence, is further evidence of Iraqs struggle for true independence.

The keyword, though, is genuine. The best way to de-legitimize Iraqi nationalism and sovereignty is with U.S. missiles killing Iraqi militiamen, even when amply justified. Regular Iraqis have already been caught in the crossfire: the March 13 U.S. airstrikes on Kataib Hezbollah are alleged to have also killed Iraqi soldiers, police, and civilians. Just as nations invariably rally around the flag in wartime, so are U.S. strikes in Iraq likely to undermine nationalists and drive hesitant Iraqis toward Iran. Few will support perceived American puppets or quislings. Americas endless efforts to find and nurture Iraqi nationalists have yielded little fruit.

This all comes at a time when Iran may have overplayed its hand. A leadership struggle is ongoing among the PMF, a rare positive unintended consequence of the U.S. killing of Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani and PMF leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis in January. Though he was elected with the tacit approval of both the U.S. and Iran, Kadhimi has already reinstated the popular, U.S.-friendly head of the CTS.

U.S. forces were wisely withdrawn from a number of outlying bases last month, a long-planned consolidation that also put troops under the protection of Patriot missile defense and shorter-ranged C-RAM (counter rocket, artillery, and mortar) systems. Getting U.S. troops out of Iraq altogether should be the next step. America can still exert influence in Iraq through other, better means: diplomacy, information, and economic aid.

If Iranian dominance of Iraq is to be overcome, it must be at the hands of Iraqis. The American military mission in Iraq is long overdue for conclusion. After nearly two decades of futile and bloody American effort, it is time for Iraqis to solve their own problems.

Gil Barndollar is a senior fellow at Defense Priorities and at the Catholic University of Americas Center for the Study of Statesmanship. He served as a U.S. Marine infantry officer from 2009 to 2016.

Editors note: This is an Op-Ed and as such, the opinions expressed are those of the author. If you would like to respond, or have an editorial of your own you would like to submit, please contact Military Times managing editor Howard Altman, haltman@militarytimes.com.

Continued here:
Iraqis, not US troops, must be the ones who counter Iran's influence in Iraq - Military Times

To the editor: What reader, having any familiarity with nearly two decades of the U.S. relationship with Iraq, can take seriously Sara Allawis and Michael OHanlons formulations for what is needed in order for Iraqs new prime minister to succeed?

The authors conveniently omit any mention of the dictates imposed on Iraq by the U.S. since the 2003 invasion. Accordingly, they attribute none of Iraqs pervasive institutional and governing failures to its greatest source of foreign influence, the United States.

After this many years of engagement and no end in sight, does anyone still buy into the concept of the U.S. being most able to identify Iraqs problems?

Ted Rosenblatt, Pacific Palisades

..

To the editor: To be clear, in 2011, it was 75% of the American people and the Iraqi government, and not just President Obama, who wanted our troops withdrawn.

With green energy alternatives to Mideast oil and considering the futility of our past efforts, Obama was right all along to try and pivot to Asia, while leaving the Middle East to its self-determined misfortunes.

Arthur D. Wahl, Port Hueneme

View original post here:
U.S. caused a lot of Iraq's problems. It can't solve them - Los Angeles Times

Thispartnership aims to provide easier payment options for StarzPlays existing and would-be subscribers with easy access to its content for Zain customers.

StarzPlay has partnered withZain, the mobile communications and data services provider in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), to offer even easier payment options for existing and would-be subscribers.

StarzPlay will accelerate customer acquisition through Direct Carrier Billing (DCB) integration, signing agreements with Zain in three countries Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iraq. This also marks StarzPlays first-ever DCB integration in Iraq providing access to its video content for Zains 15.7m customers across the country.

DCB is a critical success factor for reaching mass audiences across MENA markets, where not all would-be-subscribers have access to a credit card. Making payments through local telecom operators as part of their standard prepaid or post-paid bills means they can watch StarzPlay content straight from their phone, or at home via smart TV or games console.

Commenting on the partnership,Maaz Sheikh, Co-founder and CEO atStarzPlay,said: Were really excited about this strategic partnership with Zain, as it means we can make watching our premium content even easier for millions of Zain subscribers in KSA, Kuwait and Iraq. Who doesnt want hassle-free payments, no extra bills or paperwork, and access to binge-worthy series and blockbuster movies on demand? This is a great opportunity to continue to broaden our reach and connect with those new audiences across the MENA region that we know will love StarzPlay.

STARZPLAY has strategic partnerships with21 telcos across the region includingEtisalat Group, du, STC, Mobily, Orange Group, Viva Group, Ooredoo Group, Maroc Telcomoffering subscription via prepaid and post-paid mobile to subscribers.

See the original post here:
StarzPlay ties with Zain to boost subscriptions in KSA, Kuwait and Iraq - BroadcastProME.com