How Iran Is Losing Iraq : by Dave Price

It’s being reported they’re training Shia assassination squads to target Iraqi government officials and other targets. For a long time, a meme of the antiwar left has been “Iran won in Iraq,” based on the notion that Maliki’s SCII/DAWA government’s weakness and long association with Iran during the Saddam regime meant they could do little but be an Iranian satellite. But Iraqi and Iranian interests began diverging the moment the Iraqi leadership took power as a legitimately elected government, with responsibilities to their own country and constituents, and billions a month in oil revenue eliminating any need for further Iranian succor. When Maliki’s U.S.-trained forces finally began taking the fight to the Iran-supported Mahdi Army (and crushing them), the split was complete. Now Iran has an ongoing problem: under their form of government, they can’t control their worst impulses. Unaccountable rogue theocrats have factions of the military that are willing to violently further their ends, even if the semi-elected government doesn’t approve. Iraqis are growing increasingly resentful of Iranian bombs and rockets killing their friends and family in Basra and Baghdad, and the upcoming assassination attempts against moderate Shia leaders are going to further raise their ire.
The Anbar Awakening began because the Anbari Sunnis resented Al Qaeda’s heavy-handed tactics. Iran’s actions threaten to spark an Iraqi Awakening.