The Iraqi people "siege" the US Embassy in Iraq, what the US army is doing this time?

 The Iraqi people "siege" the US Embassy in Iraq, what the US army is doing this time?

Recently, the situation in the Middle East has increased fire. The outbreak point was Iraq. In late December 2019, a US military contractor was killed in an attack on a US military base. The United States determined that the attack was related to a branch of the Shiite militia in Iraq.

Recently, the situation in the Middle East has increased a fire, and the outbreak point is in Iraq.

In late December 2019, a US military contractor was killed in an attack on a US military base.

The United States determined that the attack was related to a branch of the Shiite militia in Iraq.

On December 29, the U.S. military air strikes this militia, causing heavy casualties. The current statistics include 25 deaths and 51 wounded.

On December 31, a large number of Shiite people surrounded the US Embassy in Iraq. Protesters banged doors, smashed windows, and set fire to the periphery of the US Embassy in Iraq and destroyed some of its facilities.

Given that there have been precedents of Libyan militants attacking the US consulate in Benghazi and killing the US ambassador to Libya.

Therefore, the US military first went to the embassy to reinforce the Marine Corps special air-ground task force.

Later, the U.S. military announced that it would deploy about 750 people from the 82nd Airborne Division’s rapid reaction force to the Middle East, which will arrive at the U.S. military base in Kuwait in advance.

If the situation in Baghdad is further out of control, the Ministry will be stationed in the embassy area to protect the security of the US embassy (airborne troops have already been stationed).

The U.S. military guarding the embassy used tear gas on the demonstrators, and at the same time, a U.S. helicopter fired jamming bombs to force the crowd away.

The Iraqi militia also called for the evacuation of the demonstrators. The number of demonstrators gathered near the embassy has been greatly reduced, but there are still people protesting around the embassy.

The US embassy in Iraq is not just a few houses, but one of the largest foreign agencies of the United States in the world. The building complex covers an area similar to that of the Vatican, and it has more than 15,000 staff working in it.

In order to defend this "Embassy" comparable to the smallest country in the world, its periphery is composed of multiple defense facilities, which can be said to be a city within a city.

In the embassy, ​​in addition to the daily garrison of the US Marine Corps, there are also extremely diverse US military intelligence personnel. Therefore, there are also reports that the US Embassy in Iraq is actually a contemporary version of the colonial governor's palace.

After the Iraqi people besieged the US embassy, ​​the United States immediately attacked Iran, believing that it was Iran that manipulated the actions of the Iraqi militia.

Iran hit back:

The United States should not make any "misjudgments" about the worsening deadlock. Its supreme leader Khamenei stated that "Iran (if) decides to confront any country, then it will confront it directly." The implication is also to ironic the excessive associations and accusations of the United States.

Interestingly, on November 27, 2019, more than a month ago, protesters in the southern Iraqi city of Najaf stormed the Iranian consulate and set fire, causing damage to some buildings.

Iran also accused "outside forces of planning all this."

Regarding all this caused by the U.S. air strike against Shiite militias, Iraqi Prime Minister Abdul-Mahdi said:

He tried to prevent US military operations, but US officials insisted on doing so.

It can be seen that the Iraqi government is also dissatisfied with the US air strikes.

At the same time, the Iraqi Prime Minister declared "three days of mourning for those killed in the US airstrike", and his attitude has been very clear.

This incident is so simple that it is basically clear, but if the many mysteries behind it are not solved, then it is impossible to understand why the above incident happened.

Mystery 1:

What is the current political situation in Iraq?

After the 2003 Iraq War, our general view of the country’s new government was a "puppet" regime supported by the United States, but from the actual situation in recent years, this is not the case.

There are many situations where the Iraqi government runs counter to the United States, which is obviously not something a "puppet" regime can do.

Therefore, it is necessary for us to make a simple review of the current political situation in Iraq.

There are three main factions in Iraq's political power, one is Sunni, two are Shiite, and three are Kurdish.

In Saddam’s era, the Sunni Baath Party was in absolute dominance, and the latter two were either suppressed or extremely suppressed.

After the 2003 Iraq War, Saddam’s Baathist regime was overthrown, and the new Iraqi government was formed under the operation of the United States, with the aim of adopting the so-called "American democracy."

Because the United States was extremely vigilant against the former Sunni Baathist forces in the Saddam era, the new government jointly suppressed Sunnis and introduced Shiite and Kurdish forces.

In the ethnic composition of Iraq, 73.5% are Arabs, 21.6% are Kurds, and the rest are Turks and Armenians.

In terms of religion, 95% of people believe in Islam, of which about 55% believe in Shia, and the rest believe in Sunni.

Since most of the Kurds believe in Sunnis, but the interests of Kurds and Arabs are seriously conflicted, Iraq actually formed a tripartite force of Sunni Arabs, Shiite Arabs and Kurds, among which Shiites The faction naturally occupies an absolute demographic advantage.

In the Iraqi political system, the president is the symbolic head of state, the prime minister controls the real power, and there is another speaker.

In the reconstruction of Iraq planned by the United States, a system of decentralization of sects was adopted, with Kurds as president, Shia as prime minister, and Sunni as speaker.

In this way, the Shiites who control real power will naturally gradually gain a greater advantage in the political structure.

There are pro-American factions among the Shiites, which is an important factor for the United States to dare to let Shiites take power.

However, due to the natural religious closeness between the Iraqi Shia and Iran (the largest Shia country in the world), the latter has continuously exerted influence on the Iraqi Shia. Therefore, the pro-Iranian forces in Iraq are very large, and the latter's power becomes stronger. After coming to the bigger world, it gradually moved away from the United States.

This is probably something that the United States did not expect at first. The reason why the United States introduced a tripartite joint ruling is actually to allow all parties in Iraq to fight and fall into internal friction, and to reap the profits and control it.

Shiites are now gradually rising, and they are becoming more pro-Iranian.

This is obviously extremely unfavorable to the United States' Middle East strategy.

Therefore, the United States is dissatisfied with the special relationship between the Iraqi government and Iran.

Since October 2019, there have been demonstrations in various parts of Iraq. Their implications for Iran are obvious, and they are likely to be instigated by the United States. In particular, the demonstrators attacked the Iranian consulate in the Shiite resort of Najaf on November 27.

In addition to accusing the United States, Iran also criticized the Iraqi government for inaction.

On November 29, Sistani, the highest religious leader of Iraq’s Shiites, delivered a speech calling on the National Assembly to reconsider the Abdul-Mahdi government.

On November 30, Abdul-Mahdi handed in his resignation; the Iraqi National Assembly approved his resignation on December 1.

Abdul Mahdi will continue to serve as the caretaker prime minister until a new government is formed.

This shows that Iran is also not satisfied with the current Iraqi government.

The United States felt that the current Iraqi government was too pro-Iranian, while Iran felt that the Iraqi government had not done enough. As a result, both sides exerted influence.

On November 27, the demonstrators attacked the Iranian consulate. On the 28th, Iran condemned. On the 29th, Iraq’s Shiite leaders demanded the resignation of the Shi’ite prime minister. On the 30th, the prime minister submitted his resignation. On December 1, the parliament approved the resignation.

After this series of operations, it is not difficult to see who has greater influence on the political situation in Iraq, right?

The United States may just instigate the riots and make the Iraqi government deviate from Iran, while Iran can exert influence to make the Iraqi government change water and prepare for the formation of a more pro-Iranian government.

The dissatisfaction of the United States can be imagined, and taking the opportunity to attack the Shiite militias supported by Iran can be regarded as a breath of relief.

As a result, the latter surrounded the U.S. Embassy with a backhand, which was a sigh of relief for the Iranian consulate being shocked a month ago.

Mystery 2:

What force is the Shiite militia in Iraq?

Most Arab countries are built on the basis of tribes. Why do strongman regimes exist widely in Arab countries?

It is because the strongman can gain a foothold under the support of the big tribes, or can make use of the contradictions and conflicts between the tribes to achieve control.

But at present, no Arab country can completely eliminate the existence of tribes, and the latter still possess considerable armed forces, especially when the country is in chaos.

In Saddam’s era, Iraq’s Shi’ites were suppressed, and even religious leaders were often placed under house arrest or assassinated. Obviously, it is not possible to talk about the formation of a strong armed force.

But after the Iraq War, when the new army was formed, the United States did not agree with the old Sunni soldiers to join the army, so many Shiites, whose population was the majority, joined the army.

In addition, the major Shiite tribes in Iraq have formed their own militia forces, most of which have the support of Iran.

Iran does have more or less influence over these militias.

At present, the total number of Shiite militias in Iraq has exceeded 100,000. Although not all factions are controlled by Iran, the US military is extremely dissatisfied.

Mystery three:

Why does the Iraqi Shiite militia disturb the US military?

After the end of the Iraq War in 2003, the US military in Iraq fell into a long war of security. By the time the US military announced its withdrawal in 2011, 4,482 US troops had been killed and 32,213 were wounded. The loss of personnel was great.

Most of these U.S. troops were killed or wounded by the Iraqi resistance organization. Because the U.S. military disbanded the original Saddam army at that time and was not allowed to join the new army, and the political status of the Sunni Arabs in Iraq fell drastically after the war. The occupying forces were very dissatisfied, so the old Sunni soldiers were the main force against the US military.

Since the Iraqi militia has a delicate relationship with the new Shia-dominated government, it is not so radical compared to the more frequent Sunni resistance against the US military.

But not being radical does not mean not being anti-American.

In early April 2019, a U.S. report stated that the deaths of 608 U.S. troops in Iraq were related to Iran. Naturally, Iran did not send troops to directly kill U.S. troops. What the Americans meant was that the deaths of these 608 people were related to Iran’s support of Iraq. The Ye faction militia is related to Iran as an "indirect killing."

Although these 608 people are not small, compared to the above statistics of 4,482 American soldiers killed in action, Shiites are still restrained.

What's more, this is just a tool for US public opinion to attack Iran. It is hard to say whether there are more than 600 people.

It is precisely because the Shiite militia poses little direct threat to the US military that the United States has acquiesced to its existence for so many years.

The United States truly realized the power of Shia militias in its military operations against extremist forces that began in 2014.

This force was originally an extremist Sunni armed force in Iraq. After the Syrian Civil War, it took advantage of its emptiness and then developed and grew back to Iraq, occupying a small part of Iraq.

There was a famous report at that time that the 30,000 troops of the new Iraqi army could not defeat 800 extremist armed forces. In fact, many of the local Iraqi troops were Sunni soldiers, and there were not many Sunni extremist armed forces. The meaning of resistance.

And the local area is the gathering area of ​​Iraqi Sunni, so many soldiers of the extreme armed forces came from here.

However, extremist armed forces are extremist armed forces. They are not only insensitive to Shiites and Kurds, but also burned, killed and looted people who are also Sunni. Many Sunni soldiers captured by Iraqi government forces have also suffered Torture.

After knowing the virtues of the extremist armed forces, the Iraqi army, whether Sunni or Shiite, dare not release the water anymore, so the combat effectiveness in the later period will rise.

In the process of fighting against extremist forces, Iraqi Shiite militias participated in a large number of wars, and in many cases they were more able to fight than government forces.

On the one hand, the war exercised the Shiite militia's actual combat capability, on the other hand, it also made it seize a large amount of armaments, which is more conducive to its expansion.

Iran has played an extremely critical role in this process, and it can indeed directly influence and even command some Shiite militias.

Moreover, these armed forces not only fought in the Iraqi battlefield, but also cross-border to the Syrian battlefield. Iran also recruited some refugees to form armed forces to fight in Syria. This is the so-called Iranian army in Syria that is often reported.

Looking at the map, you will find that from Iran to Iraq, from Iraq to Syria, from Syria to Lebanon, Iran has indeed built the so-called Shia arc. In addition, the Yemeni Houthis supported by it continue to give to the Arabian Peninsula. Sunni rich countries are bleeding.

This is actually a great threat to the United States’ Middle East strategy, so everyone has seen that the United States has been more anxious about the situation on Iran in the past year or two.

In order to cut off the Shia arc, the Iraqi link is critical.

Although the current Iraqi government maintains a so-called ally relationship with the Iraqi Army, it is clear that the Iraqi government is also practising Tai Chi. On the one hand, it is seeking US aid while on the other hand it has its own idea.

In addition, the Iraqi Shiite religious forces and armed forces have a great influence on the government. Even if the government falls to the United States, the latter will still have difficulty controlling Iraq.

What's more, as mentioned above, its religious power can directly affect the government.

Therefore, if the United States wants Iraqi Shiites to completely abandon Iran and welcome itself, it will certainly not be possible.

As for the other two major forces in Iraq, one is Kurdish and the other is Sunni.

The Kurds are really pro-American, but at best they are only regional self-government forces in Iraq, which cannot have an impact on the overall situation. Moreover, the Kurds are extremely loose, and the mud cannot support the wall.

The United States supports Sunnis in most Arab countries, but not in Iraq. Saddam’s Baathist forces are deeply entrenched among the Sunnis. Anti-Saskatchewan will inevitably suppress Sunnis, and it’s done. Unhelpful.

Therefore, the United States is facing an awkward situation in Iraq. Those who like themselves do not dominate the mainstream, and those who dominate do not like themselves.

Moreover, according to the current situation, the Shiites in Iraq will continue to grow in the future, and it is difficult for Iran to weaken its influence.

The three-party struggle for power in Iraq set by the United States and its own strategy of reaping profits not only failed, but it also made Iran cheaper.

If this goes on, even if the embassy area is built into a country within a country, what can it do?

This time the Iraqis only damaged part of the US Embassy, ​​but this is definitely not the last time.

If the situation is out of control, what will happen to the United States?