Trump wants to use Iraq to 'watch' Iran. Baghdad says not so fast

By Mick Krever, CNN

Posted at 2040 GMT (0440 HKT) June 25, 2019

Play Video
Iraqi President: We don’t need another war 15:58
London (CNN) — Under no circumstances will Iraq allow the United States to use its bases in Iraq to launch an attack on neighboring Iran, Iraq’s President Barham Salih told CNN.
“We do not want our territory to be a staging post for any hostile action against any of our neighbors, including Iran,” Salih said in an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour in London on Tuesday.
“This is definitely not part of the agreement between the Iraqi government and the United States.”
In his interview with Amanpour, the Iraqi President Salih questioned the efficacy of sanctions to change a country’s behavior, saying there was a “fundamental question” about whether sanctions could induce a country to change policy.

Related Article: Here’s what you need to know about the US-Iran crisis

“We in Iraq have suffered from sanctions in the 1990s, and the devastation that has afflicted Iraqi society has been really enduring, even to date,” he said
US policymakers have repeatedly accused Iran of regional malfeasance in recent days, like mysterious attacks on ships in the Gulf of Oman, which many observers say echo the drumbeats heard ahead of the Iraq war in 2003.
Amanpour asked Salih if he, too, saw the connection. He pointed out that then-Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was “a unique case in history,” and then added: “But the parallel is as follows: It’s easy to start a war, but very, very difficult to end a war.”

The USA is the largest consumer market in the world. That gives it the muscle to fack up with countries that depend on their market. If Africa wises up, it can be the largest producer economy. It can dictate whom it sells to. We have the largest unfrozen land in the world, and as Libya proved, deserts can produce edible vegetables.

We would be issuing these “sanctions”. USA would be the first target.

Usa only controls Iraq on paper but on the ground Tehran controls everything up to Baghdad. All religious leaders who are now the grassroots leaders in Iraq openly take orders from Tehran. The usa puppet government there is very unpopular and the new Iraq army ironically made up of reformed Saddam generals/troops spend all their time protecting the puppet leaders. They are literary hiding at the green zone. The usa knows once they leave completely they Iran will directly ran Iraq.

For a moment, imagine if China said no products made in china shall be sold to Kenya!

Thank you for simplifying what I said. There are a lot of markets around the world and i think the thought process can be flipped. The economics can control the politics (remember the triumvirate of social-economic-political process?)