America’s Failed Strategy in the Middle East: Losing Iraq and the Gulf
https://www.csis.org/analysis/americas-failed-strategy-middle-east-losing-iraq-and-gulf
It is all too tempting for the United States to focus on the current crisis over the clash between Iran and the United States in Iraq. Events have steadily escalated since late December. Iran has sponsored attacks by Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces on U.S. troops and facilities – as a result, the United States has launched retaliatory attacks on Iraqi PMFs. This has been followed by well-organized demonstrations and attacks on the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, which was then followed by a U.S. drone strikes that killed Qasem Soleimani – the head of Iran’s Quds Force – and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis – the head of Al-Hashd al-Shaabi, an Iraqi militia group tied to Iran that had been linked to attacks on U.S. targets.
