from Press TV, Tehran, ..with Peter Ford
[ Editor’s Note: Peter Ford ended his British diplomatic career after only three years (2003-06), primarily due to his outspoken criticism of British policy toward Syria where he had been ambassador, which we can all see in hindsight was to participate in the carving up and recolonizing Syria with puppet leaders.
His educational training had been in Arab studies, so he landed on his feet in 2006 with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), a UN agency created in December 1949 to support the relief and human development of Palestinians. Ford is one of the good guys.
I disagree with his premise of Trump looking for a “face-saving way out” of Iraq. Doing that would not only remove US leverage on the Iraqi government, meaning interfering in its internal affairs, but send a message to US Persian Gulf allies depending on their US big brother to help these states keep their boots on the necks of their Shia populations. Imagine that.
More important, as Trump has said he “wants the oil” in Syria’s Deir Ezzor, he needs the western Iraq Anbar province bases to move US troops and make believe ISIS opposition around creating enough small level mayhem as a smokescreen for the US remaining.
And last, the US, Israel, and other nearby states want to block any possible land bridge between Iran, Syria and Lebanon that could become the core of a powerful military force that could protect the Shia populations from being preyed upon by Sunni un-elected masters.
Who knows, maybe the Iraqis would feel more comfortable with a Russian base helping them keep a lid on ISIS, if they needed it. We sure as hell know the Saudis aren’t capable of fighting anyone. Once the US is out of the Mideast, there will be incentive to complete peace deals, the last thing that Deep Staters want to see… Jim W. Dean ]
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– First published … January 25, 2020 –
President Donald Trump is desperately looking for a “face-saving way” and an “exit door” to pull the American troops out of Iraq after the assassination of Lt. Gen. Qassem Soleimani on his orders and the ensuing anti-US sentiment in the Arab country, says a former British diplomat.
Peter Ford, former UK ambassador to Syria and an expert on Middle East affairs, made the remarks during a Friday edition of the Press TV’s The Debate program while commenting on the Iraqis’ mass protest against the presence of American forces in their country.
The nationwide protest came three weeks after the US launched an assassination drone attack in Baghdad’s airport that martyred the top Iranian commander and a prominent member of the Iraqi government, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, along with several other people.
Since then, anti-US sentiment has been running high in the Arab country and a few days after the assassinations, Iraq’s parliament voted to expel the US troops.
“The march followed the voting by the parliament — a clear majority in the parliament voted for the departure of US forces — how ironic that the Americans who are always boasting about their support for democracy and criticizing other countries because they don’t have proper parliament, and here we have a brazen case of an Arab parliament demanding US departure and the Americans ignoring it, insulting it in fact,” Ford told Press TV.
“It’s clear that a very significant majority of Iraqis are not happy at all, especially after the murder of General Soleimani, it was an insult to the honor of Iraq. I don’t think the Americans realized what the repercussions would be in Iraq itself and now they’ll be showed the exit door, I don’t think they can go on resisting for much longer, I think Trump is looking for a face-saving way out, this is why they are exploring the possibility of NATO taking over the role — although I think this would be unacceptable also — it shows how desperate the Americans are to find the exit door. Trump does have a political need not to be humiliated, not to have a Vietnam moment,” he added.
The former UK diplomat went on to say that the US used the so-called campaign against the Daesh (ISIS) terrorist group as a “pretext” to continue its military presence there, but added, Iraqi security forces can fend for themselves in the face of the Takfiri outfit.
“This is a pretext; the idea that they are there to fight the remnants of ISIS is a transparent empty pretext. The security forces of Iraq are now well capable of staying on top of what’s left of ISIS, particularly if they had help from others like Iran and Russia and Syria together to keep ISIS completely down and out, but the Americans are using the ISIS’ scapegoat as a pretext to justify their presence,” Ford underlined.
He also hailed Iran’s retaliatory attacks on US bases in Iraq following the assassination of the country’s national hero, saying, “It was an evil act, which invited retribution, which came with the Iranian strikes on the US bases… Now Iran has had a chance to prove that technically they can strike American bases with missiles and most importantly they have the necessary courage and commitment to do it.”
Since the early hours on Friday, huge crowds of men, women and children of all ages converged on the Jadriyah neighborhood near Baghdad University, with protesters carrying banners and chanting slogans calling for the expulsion of US forces.
Iraq’s al-Ahd news network reported that Iraqis from all of the country’s provinces had gathered in the city.
The massive rally came after influential cleric Muqtada al-Sadr called on Iraqis to stage “a million-strong, peaceful, unified demonstration to condemn the American presence and its violations”.
Jim W. Dean is VT Editor Emeritus. He was an active editor on VT from 2010-2022. He was involved in operations, development, and writing, plus an active schedule of TV and radio interviews. He now writes and posts periodically for VT.
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Thanks Jimmy D
BTW now the Alogrithm judging the incoming comments seems to be Banning the Word ” Palestinians ” …..
The comment board generally runs automatically as no volunteers are clearing comments. We don’t get the trolls like we used to, mostly from FB when the Israelis had a huge operation going and then with the Trump election where a lot of money was spent on such things. I don’t think I have banned a commenter in a couple of years. They seemed to have given up on us.
This was published on moonofalabama, I think it will shock even those who knew that Trump is a liar. https://static.hypercomments.com/data/images2/9483823/1579175432328668
Okay , Let’s Get Back to How Things Actually WORK ………. Earlier YOU Had ” Requested ” to be Allowed Your Mission , Although Everyone Knew That You’re Total Bullshit …….. Earlier YOU Requested to be Allowed to do YOUR BULLSHIT Mission that Nobody Believed in …….. BUT Then According to YOUR Habit then YOU Fuked Up Big Time by Killing Your Gracious ” Host ” ……. So No Doubt You’ve Fuked Up Big Time …….. So Now Your ” Visa ” is cancelled AND the ” Welcome Mat ” been pulled Away …….. BUT You Don’t want to Leave Coz You’re Having Too Too Much FUN BUT Don’t Worry the Fun Ended With General Soleimani …….. BUT There’s NO Way That You’re gonna Leave Voluntarily …… So Don’t Worry About THAT Either ……. coz Day by Day the Shiite are Gathering Around You ……. AND WHEN They’re Ready then They Come for You AND They come Suddenly From ALL Sides of course With Bunker Buster Missiles too …… Yes You’re too too Greedy to Leave Voluntarily BUT Don’t Worry , Soon You Will ….. Every Passing Day More and More Are Gathering Close to YOU …….. Don’t Worry , You Killed Your ” Host ” so Soon Your LIFE is IMPOSSIBE ….. Did You get that imminent Evident Truth ……..
What are YOU going to Do ? …….. Wipe out Everything Nearby Every Few Days ? …… Won’t WORK Either but You can Try it With Your Super Smart Drones …… BYE BYE
I can go to My Street Corner AND SHOUT ANYTHING AGAINST ANY GOD or Christ or Mohammed BUT IF I SHOUT Against My Stingy Jewish Boss Who’s Already Screwed Me Over I Will Immediately Be Confronted AND Abused By Sheldon Adelson’s ” Anti defamation League ” guys So ?You can get Screwed Over BUT You’re NOT ALLOWED to Tell Everybody About it ALL
So called “Americans” only want to promote Greater Khazaria, and don’t care how many millions of Iraqis, Syrians, Irananians they torment, maim and kill to do it.
Speaking about ISIS , one can’t deny that the Terrorist ISIS has a few Patrons … but here I want to Raise concern about the Shitty Arab Sheikhs who do it personally NOT State sponsors ……. Many Arab Countries are Filthy Rich in Oil AND With Excellent Welfare Benefits for their Dumb Citizens ……. So in Many Arab Countries There are Plenty of Rich Welfare Recipients Who have Never Worked a Day in Their Lives AND those Spoilt Sheikhs Don’t have a Clue What is Life or What is Real Life like AND They got More than Plenty of Welfare Money and NOT Knowing Anything Those Stupids Donate to Some Causes That they like AND A Lot of Money was Donated by a lot of Sheikhs to ISIS , maybe these Stupids Believe in Sunni Domination OR Whatever BUT I’m certain that other than State Sponsors Many Sheikhs Personally Donated Huge Amounts to various Evils including ISIS …… so those Sheikhs too are Contributors to the Spawning Evil and most of these Sheikhs come from Countries that were State Sponsors of ISIS so those were Never Questionned or Bothered by their governments BUT They’re Contributors to Evil Just the same …. I don’t like these Sheikhs ……
You’re correct, Sir. It’s the Persian Gulf version of The Carlyle Group. Human Lives matter-not.
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