ATL Bear said:
Realitybites said:
The bottom line on Iraq:
"In 2003, a total of 1.3 million Christians lived in Iraq and enjoyed protection and near-equal rights with Iraq's Muslim majority under Saddam. Now that number has dwindled to fewer than 250,000. "I have not met one person both locally and internationally who has said the 2003 military invasion was a good decision," Archbishop Warda told the Register. "No one, except corruption, has benefited from the invasion."
The impact of the war and its aftermath on Iraq's Christians has led many to question whether their interests were ever seriously considered by the U.S.-led coalition. Pope St. John Paul II frequently warned, in vain, against the conflict and sent peace envoys to try to avert it, largely because he could foresee the devastating effect it would have on Christians there."
https://www.ncregister.com/news/iraqi-christians-20-years-on
We destroyed a stable nation, created an Iranian client state, killed several hundred thousand people, and went trillions into debt to do it. From a foreign policy perspective, it was a bigger blunder than Vietnam.
While Iran has increased its influence, it may come as a shock that there is no love loss between Iran and Iraq, and there are fractures in the Shia alignment and that doesn't mention the Kurdish element. So no, it isn't an Iranian client state (at least not yet). Otherwise we would not have troops and bases there and have relative freedom to operate against Iranian interests with impunity as we have.
Without a doubt one of the unintended consequences of our misadventure in Iraq was that in taking out Saddam's regime we gave Iran access to increase its sway in the country.
Of of the secondary reasons we were supposed to support taking out Saddam was that it would lead to Iran becoming weaker. Instead it increased Iranian political influence and gave them a trade partner.
Even DC admits that...
https://theintercept.com/2023/03/17/iraq-war-iran-cables/[HOW IRAN WON THE U.S. WAR IN IRAQ
A trove of secret intelligence cables obtained by
The Intercept reveals Tehran's political gains in Iraq since the 2003 invasion.]
https://www.cfr.org/in-brief/how-much-influence-does-iran-have-iraq[Iran has been deeply involved in Iraqi politics since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003. M
ore than a dozen Iraqi political parties have ties to Iran, which funds and trains paramilitary groups aligned with these parties. Some paramilitary groups under the umbrella of Iraq's
Popular Mobilization Forces have pledged allegiance to Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. These groups have used violence to crush opposition to Iranian influence ]
https://www.stimson.org/2023/retrospective-us-invasion-of-iraq-was-a-mixed-blessing-for-iran/[The
fall of Saddam Hussein's Baathist regime 20 years ago gave Iran important strategic advantages that were not anticipated by U.S. invaders. Iran's most significant regional enemy was removed from the scene and Shiites and Kurds aligned with Iran found more maneuvering room in the post-Saddam political structure.
The power of the Sunnis decreased and a new system based on
federalism and ethnic and sectarian quotas emerged, which
significantly increased Iran's influence. These changes in Iraq allowed Iran to expand its strategic depth to the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, forming what King Abdullah II of Jordan called a "
Shia Crescent."]
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2401446/business-economy[
Iran and Iraq pledge to forge stronger trade ties during official visit....in a meeting held in the Iraqi capital, Prime Minister Mohammed Al-Sudani engaged in discussions with Iran's Minister of Industry, Mining and Trade Abbas Ali-Abadi, to
expand mutual trade and deepen partnerships across various sectors, reported the Iraqi News Agency.
Both sides expressed a strong commitment to strengthening their bilateral relations, with a specific focus on collaborative ventures in sectors such as petrochemicals and fertilizers.]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran%E2%80%93Iraq_relations#:~:text=Iran%20has%20since%20become%20Iraq's,dominated%20by%20Shi'ite%20Muslims.[
Iran has since become Iraq's largest trading partner...]