generalspeaking

"President Barack Obama secretly wrote Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the middle of last month and described a shared interest in fighting Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria, according to people briefed on the correspondence.

The letter appeared aimed both at buttressing the Islamic State campaign and nudging Iran’s religious leader closer to a nuclear deal."                                       The Wall Street Journal

"Soleimani [Iranian general Ghasem Soleimani, al Quds Republican Guard] has taught us that death is the beginning of life, not the end of life."
Shia militia commander

That is the cult of death, the cult of Iranian and jihadi martyrdom, a pathological cult shared by all fanatical Muslims who glory in the opportunity of achieving an early introduction to Paradise, lauded by all as glorious shaheed, performing their sacred duty to Islam by their supreme sacrifice, an obligation of the faithful that cannot and must not be avoided. To become a warrior of Islam is to become a jihadist, and to achieve martyrdom is the highest state of heroism.

And the opportunities are plentiful in Iraq. But the rewards are munificent. Take, for example, the triumphant flaunting of a victory by the Iraqi military over the Islamic State of Iraq & Al-Sham when the military was finally able to wrest the town of Jurf al-Sakher last week from ISIS who had held it for months. A victory parade ensued with vast enthusiasm and self-congratulations, tanks and Humvees parading through the streets, residents reassured they were returned to the Iraqi fold.

Independent Iraqi news websites revealed a wider backstory explaining the success of the Iraqi army. Local commanders admitting that Lebanon's Hezbollah Shiite militia group, an Iranian surrogate army was heavily involved. On the other hand, so too was the Islamic Republic of Iran as well, with the heroic military presence of General Soleimani, head of the al-Quds division of the Republican Guard. After all, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq are now protectorates of greater Iran.

And while the United States finds itself in an obviously awkward position having to deny the unfortunate appearance of siding with, and assisting, and indeed conspiring with Iran, with Hezbollah when the group is considered to have terrorist status, as indeed does the Republican Guard in some circles where even Canada is considering listing it as such, a conspiracy raises its ugly head. But its entrapment also affects Canada which has sent its military aircraft to join the U.S.-led coalition.

The two components of attacking ISIS with a modicum of success  relate to the U.S.-led airstrikes and the boots on the ground; a combination of Iraqi forces, independent Shiite militias, Hezbollah and Iran's al-Quds, with its commander formulating strategy to lead to winning conflicts with the Islamic State. And secret missives going from the White House to Tehran, assuring Ayatollah Khamenei that the U.S. and Iran share a common goal; the destruction of ISIS.

The secret messages align with the recent scandal revolving around the Obama administration and the revelations that President Obama led Israel astray in its promises with respect to Iran's nuclear ambitions and the American resolve not to permit the Republic to gain possession of nuclear arms. With the U.S. and Iran involved in nuclear negotiations, Grand-Ayatollah-for-life Khamenei has asserted that the U.S. Britain and "Zionists" created between them al-Qaeda and ISIS.

Just recently, Iranians celebrated the anniversary of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran seizure by burning American flags. The chant "Death to America!" is never far from the lips of Iranians who regularly mach in protests against the Great Satan. And here is the Great Satan making common cause with the Islamic Republic, and assuring they have much in common, to forge a working relationship to benefit them both.

With U.S.-led strikes overhead and militia commanders and advisers from Hezbollah and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard on the front lines providing weapons training to 7,000 Iraqi troops and militia fighters, co-ordinating with military commanders before the operation, how could they possibly lose? One commander identifying himself as Abu Zeinab was happy to confide that General Soleimani planned the operation three months earlier  to retake Jurf al-Sakher, 50 kilometres south of Baghdad.

Lying on a road used by Shiite pilgrims who head in droves to the holy city of Karbala to commemorate the death of the Prophet Muhammad's grandson, Imam Hussein, emphasizes the importance of the town. The 7th Century disagreement about succession after the death of the Prophet where the Sunnis felt anyone capable could be caliph, and the Shiites insisting that only those of the Prophet's bloodline could qualify, resulted in the schism that has never been resolved, and is even now playing out across the Muslim world.

The Shiite militias fighting Sunnis north of Baghdad are also receiving training from Hezbollah advisers. These are the very same Shiite militias implicated in the mass slaughter of Sunnis during the sectarian carnage of 2006-07 in which both Sunnis and Shias revelled in bloodshed during the U.S. and allied occupation of the country. Their brutalization of Sunni captives is of a more recent vintage. It hardly seems credible that they would require training in warfare, since it seems to equate with slaughter.

According to Amnesty International, Shiite militias abduct and kill Sunni civilians with impunity under the tacit support of the government of Iraq. Iraqi prime minister Haider al-Abadi, whom the international community hoped would be an improvement over his predecessor who alienated Iraqi Sunnis has claimed he would take steps to rein in the Shiite militias, but IRG advisers have guided them in shelling Sunni insurgents around Samarra, home to another revered Shiite shrine.

Under the delusional imagination that the powers in Iran can be influenced by a few polite diplomatic notes hoping to achieve a state of improved relations with the United States, the Obama administration is once again demonstrating to one arm of the Muslim world that it has nothing to fear from the still-most influential and powerful nation on Earth.

Aspire to enlarge their empire in the Middle East? Why not?

Planning to acquire at long last an arsenal of nuclear weapons with which to give those aspirations greater clout? Proceed, and drop the caution.