Excerpt:
Another war is Irans attempts to dominate the country. Iran is doing this through Shia Arab factions it has influenced, or bought. While the majority of Shia Arabs oppose Iran pulling strings in Iran, there is a realization that Iran is a natural ally against Sunni Arab efforts to put Iraqi Sunni Arabs back in charge of Iraq. This, oddly enough, is where the United States come in. Iraqi Shia Arabs look to the U.S. as a guarantor of Shia Arab dominance in the country. The U.S. is expected to keep both Iran, and foreign Sunni Arab, influence from interfering in Iraq. That, in effect, is U.S. policy. But that does not stop Iran from trying to stir up pro-Iranian trouble inside Iraq. Saudi Arabia has recently come out and said, publicly, that it would come to the aid of Iraqi Sunni Arabs if the situation got much worse. Well, it is going to get much worse. But since the U.S. also protects Saudi Arabia from Iran, the Saudis are not going to send much more than guns and money to their fellow Sunnis in Iraq. And those Iraqi Sunnis already have lots of guns and money, so the Saudi pledge is more for morale purposes, than for material effect. Fighting the Iranian influence is tricky, because the pro-Iranian political parties control about a third of the seats in parliament, and are more united than any of the other factions. The Iranians are religious fanatics who believe they are on a roll. Recently, Iran has told the West to back off when it comes to Iran's nuclear weapons program. Iran has also asserted that Shia, not Sunni, should control the Moslem holy places at Mecca and Medina. This goes to the heart of the Saudi family rationale for controlling most of the Arabian peninsula. This brings us right back to the reason why the Saudis need the United States so much. The U.S. is also supporting the Iraqi factions that resist Iranian influence. These factions are the majority in parliament, but are not as well armed, organized or determined as the pro-Iran groups. Iran is willing to back a coup in Iraq, which is a nightmare scenario for the Sunni Arab nations of the region. |