Iraq

Story Stream

Learning the Right Lessons From Iraq and Afghanistan March 13, 2025

Our Middle East failures do not represent the true legacy of American foreign policy. ...

Syria Shows Dangerous Signs of Iraq’s Post-Saddam Chaos March 13, 2025

Democracy and peace are not guaranteed when a dictator falls — sometimes, a country’s fate turns uglier and messier.   ...

Iran Could Lose Iraq March 11, 2025

Ever since its revolution in 1979, Iran has cultivated a network of proxies and friends throughout the Middle East. For years, this strategy proved successful. Slowly but surely, Tehran’s “axis of resistance” gained influence in Iraq, Lebanon, and Sy...

Trump, Aiming At Iran, Puts a Squeeze on Iraq March 10, 2025

The Trump administration has revoked a sanctions waiver that allowed Iraq to buy gas and electricity from Iran, U.S. officials said this weekend, intensifying an American pressure campaign on Tehran while complicating ties with a key U.S. partner in ...

Iraq’s Plan To Transform Its Economy Is a Risky Bet March 10, 2025

Iraq’s Development Road aims to reduce dependence on oil by turning the country into a key trade corridor between Asia and Europe. ...

Iraq’s Unfinished War February 12, 2025

Trump’s Wild Plan for Gaza February 06, 2025

President Donald Trump, who campaigned on a promise to put America first, just proposed the wildest and most improbable intervention by the United States in overseas affairs since the invasion and occupation of Iraq, more than 20 years ago. ...

Greenland: Warmed-Over McKinley or a Security Deal February 06, 2025

When the United States asked its friends for help earlier in this century, Denmark stepped forward, sending troops to fight and sometimes die in Iraq and Afghanistan. Now Danes face threats and intimidation from the United States in the form of Presi...

Honoring the Victims of the Anfal Genocide January 25, 2025

In May 2003, I stood alongside the late British MP and humanitarian Ann Clwyd at a mass grave near Baghdad, a site that bore the remains of thousands executed by Saddam Hussein's regime. Among the haunting remnants, one image has stayed with me—a chi...

Trump Should Remove U.S. Troops From Syria January 20, 2025

The fall of the brutal Assad regime marks a critical opportunity for the United States to remove itself entirely from Syria, avoiding entanglement in further war. American troops have been in Syria for the past decade with the primary objective of de...

Iraq Is in for a Rough 2025 January 17, 2025

Iraq is a developing democracy, but its location — between Iran, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Syria — means that it always faces pressure from outside its borders.  ...

The Islamic State’s Global Long Game January 10, 2025

The Islamic State has evolved and expanded globally since the territorial defeat of ISIS in Iraq and Syria in 2019, enabling the organization to continue to orchestrate and inspire attacks on the West. ...

The Iran Opportunity January 06, 2025

It is hard to think of a country that has lost as much influence in as short a time as has Iran. Until recently, it was arguably the most important regional actor in the Middle East, more influential than Egypt, Israel, Saudi Arabia, or Turkey. Yet i...

Iraq’s Fight To Stay Out of the Israel-Iran Conflict November 29, 2024

As Israel and Iran clash, Iraq’s Shia leadership is trying to rein in domestic Iranian-backed paramilitaries to shield the country from becoming a new battleground in the Middle East...

Iran Focused On Syria as Lynchpin of ‘Resistance’ Axis November 21, 2024

Unlike in Iraq, Yemen, and Lebanon, where Iran relies on proxies, Syria’s regime is directly aligned with Tehran. ...

Undercuting the Iran-Russia-China Three-Legged Stool November 14, 2024

Iran and its proxies in Iraq may soon attack Israel in retaliation for it hitting a series of military targets inside of Iranian territory. Although we are still waiting to see if and how Iran responds, Israel’s most recent operation is simply a cont...

Iranian Militias in Iraq Could Take Center Stage November 04, 2024

Other groups, such as Kataib Hezbollah in Iraq, are closely aligned with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and have carried out attacks on US troops in Iraq and Jordan. ...

Iraq at a Crossroads October 31, 2024

On October 4, the Israeli military announced that two of its soldiers were killed in a drone attack on the Golan Heights by Iraqi armed factions. ...

Is Maduro Even Trying Anymore? October 30, 2024

Months after Maduro was declared winner of the latest fraudulent Presidential Election in late July – in which the opposition candidates Edmundo González and María Corina Machado were confirmed as the true winners – Brazil, under the leadership of Pr...