{"id":50523,"date":"2020-01-12T07:54:05","date_gmt":"2020-01-12T12:54:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=50523"},"modified":"2020-01-12T07:54:10","modified_gmt":"2020-01-12T12:54:10","slug":"after-missiles-fly-iraq-becomes-the-battleground","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=50523","title":{"rendered":"After Missiles Fly, Iraq Becomes the Battleground"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/tomluongo.me\/2020\/01\/10\/after-missiles-fly-iraq-becomes-battleground\/\">After Missiles Fly, Iraq Becomes the Battleground<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tomluongo.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Houthi-rebels-claim-responsibility-for-attacks-on-Saudi-oil-facilities.jpg?fit=816%2C459&amp;ssl=1\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The future of the U.S.\u2019s involvement in the Middle East is in Iraq. The exchange of hostilities between the U.S. and Iran occurred wholly on Iraqi soil and it has become the site on which that war will continue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Israel continues to up the ante on Iran, following President Trump\u2019s lead by bombing Shia militias stationed near the Al Bukumai border crossing between Syria and Iraq.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The U.S. and Israel are determined this border crossing remains closed and have demonstrated just how far they are willing to go to prevent the free flow of goods and people across this border.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The regional allies of Iran are to be kept weak, divided and constantly under harassment.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Iraq is the battleground because the U.S. lost in Syria. Despite the presence of U.S. troops squatting on Syrian oil fields in Deir Ezzor province or the troops sitting in the desert protecting the Syrian border with Jordan, the Russians, Hezbollah and the Iranian Quds forces continue to reclaim territory previously lost to the Syrian government.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now with Turkey redeploying its pet Salafist head-choppers from Idlib to Libya to fight General Haftar\u2019s forces there to legitimize its claim to eastern Mediterannean gas deposits, the restoration of Syria\u2019s territorial integrity west of the Euphrates River is nearly complete.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The defenders of Syria can soon transition into the rebuilders thereof, if allowed. And they didn\u2019t do this alone, they had a silent partner in China the entire time.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And, if I look at this situation honestly, it was China stepping out from behind the shadows into the light that is your inciting incident for this chapter in Iraq\u2019s story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">China moving in to sign a $10.1 billion deal with the Iraqi government to begin the reconstruction of its ruined oil and gas industry in exchange for oil is of vital importance.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After Missiles Fly, Iraq Becomes the Battleground The future of the U.S.\u2019s involvement in the Middle East is in Iraq. The exchange of hostilities between the U.S. and Iran occurred wholly on Iraqi soil and it has become the site on which that war will continue. Israel continues to up the ante on Iran, following [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[21273,442,522,16963,827],"class_list":["post-50523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-geopolitics","tag-gold-goats-and-guns","tag-iraq","tag-middle-east","tag-tom-luongo","tag-united-states"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=50523"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50523\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50524,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50523\/revisions\/50524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=50523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=50523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=50523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}