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Really? You really think that all Shiites in Iraq support the Iranian Mullahs?
That's like saying all Christans are Catholic and follow the Pope or that all Sunni are ISIS or that all Jews support Netanyahu or even that all Americans support Donald Trump.
To understand what Iraq’s Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani is saying, you have to translate him twice: first from Arabic to English, then from politesse to plain-speak. In the first translation, a key passage from his Friday sermon in the holy city of Karbala went like this: “No person or group, no side with a particular view, no regional or international actor may seize the will of the Iraqi people and impose its will on them.”
The second translation: “Back off, Khamenei!”
That is how it would have sounded to Sistani’s audience in Karbala, where it was read out for the ailing octogenarian by an aide; in the streets of Baghdad and other Iraqi cities, where a bloody crackdown on largely peaceful protesters has taken more than 200 lives; in the Iraqi parliament, where lawmakers are negotiating a response to the demonstrations; and in Tehran, where Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has been struggling to respond to the rising anti-Iran sentiment that undergirds uprisings in Iraq and Lebanon.
Khamenei has unleashed Iran’s proxies in the streets — Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Shiite militias in Iraq — to intimidate the protesters. He has also dispatched his chief enforcer, the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps commander Qassem Soleimani, to the Iraqi parliament, to rally Shiite parties behind the feckless Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi.
The Iraqi's pay more attention to Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani than they do Iranian Ayatollah Khamenei. Not all Shia follow Khamenei. There are two Religious Schools in Shia Islam. The first (and many say most important) is Najaf in Iraq, which many Iranians do a Pilgrimage to. The second is in Qom, Iran under the control of Khamenei and the doctrine of Guardianship of Islamic Jurists (Wilayat al-Faqih). Sistani is unlikely to abandon Iraq and Najaf to Iran and Khamenei - Iraqis know this and so does Iran.
Yes, we all know 100% of everyone will not ever support a given entity. However, it is a fact that Iran has a much larger influence in Iraq now than when Saddam was in power.
You do not need 100% support for anything, just enough to accomplish your objective(s).
Not me having the reading comprehension problem. "negative" as in exporting less does not change the fact that without imports in the quantities stated you'd be in the hole.
So: repeating my rebuttal of the surmising of the U.S. being self sufficient and exporting only it's own surplus. It's not and it isn't. It's those imports currently making it possible to profit from export.
Then by your very standard. Hillary, Biden & Obama should be prosecuted for exactly the same kind of murders for what they did in Syria, Libya, Yemen, and the Afghan Surge. 10s of 1000s dead, 100s of 1000s maimed for life, millions displaced, and Trillions wasted.
Don't you agree, or do you simply hold a double standard? Please let us know.
Trump has not started any new wars like these warmongers. Why aren't you happy about that?
Bad decisions vs. intentional lies. Apples and oranges. Those are pretty bizarre claims you`re making regarding casualties. 5 years in Syria have killed 8 (eight) U.S. soldiers and that`s considerably less than the 4,500 body bags filled in Iraq.
A country is free to do business with who they want to do business with.
You have some issue with that? Do you not believe in sovereignty?
Americans do not believe in this and ESPECIALLY our corporate leadership and military industrial complex don't...and they call the shots.
To quote the Vietnam era "we have to destroy them all to save them".......
Or, put in the words of Kissinger to his law students at Harvard right before he went to work for Tricky Dick "If any of you don't believe we should attack, occupy or manipulate and and every country on the globe that we might have interests in, you should stand up and walk out that door".
Why is it so hard for Americans to understand they gave up their own sovereignty at the same time? IKE was dead serious about the Military Industrial Complex....so, Americans might want to ask themselves:
Who won that particular social battle? Our better angels (schools, highways, hospitals) or the Security State?
None whatsoever, except the underlying consideration being; you're number 11 on the list of countries with a percentage of proven oil reserves and will run out of the stuff before 10 others do.
I'm thinking that's the gorilla in the room.
The problem with this line of thinking is that it's not accurate...in the least.
Whether 10, 20, 30 or 40 years ago we have access to ALL the energy we want.....cheaper than the total cost we are paying now. This is done simply by BUYING IT AT MARKET PRICES.
We don't have to dot the i's and cross the T's. Lots of oil everywhere - Canada, Mexico, Venezuela, the ME and many others places.
Trump and Cheney and GWB and their "take the oil" or appease the dictator policies are for two reasons. First, it's not you and I that get the oil. It's BP and Exxon and the like. So the US Government is the protector of multi-national corporations for profits sake, not for supply!
Then, there is the matter of the largest arms merchant in the world - the USA. That's another industry which would suffer, frankly, if Americans didn't fight wars.
It would seem that logic and common sense can lead us to no other conclusion.
Even if we wanted to REALLY reach and discuss the US Energy needs, it would quite simple for the USA to cut our per capital energy use by vast amounts simply with REAL programs to do so. As you know, an LED bulb uses 12% of the energy as a standard bulb. A good hybrid car gets double or more the MPG. An insulated home and/or updated HVAC can cut energy use in 1/2.
Trump has no filter so he just said it outright..."I'll take the oil".
It amazes me that anyone considers alternative reasons after Cheney, GWB and now Trump. They admit it...and the actions show clearly what the situation is.
If you really believe this, you're really stupid. All the countries in the ME are subject to all levels for force from outside. We're only one of them. We pull out, the other have free reign. And you don't think they won't use that advantage against us?
Quote:
Originally Posted by boxus
A country is free to do business with who they want to do business with.
I believe in protecting the US. If that means stepping on anther country's sovereignty, I have no problem with it. Some of these countries aren't even "real" countries, and wouldn't exist in their current forms without outside influence / interference (thinking Iraq specifically, which was a product of the English empire.)
Quote:
You have some issue with that? Do you not believe in sovereignty?
If you really believe this, you're really stupid. All the countries in the ME are subject to all levels for force from outside. We're only one of them. We pull out, the other have free reign. And you don't think they won't use that advantage against us?
I believe in protecting the US. If that means stepping on anther country's sovereignty, I have no problem with it. Some of these countries aren't even "real" countries, and wouldn't exist in their current forms without outside influence / interference (thinking Iraq specifically, which was a product of the English empire.)
Ok, so you do not believe in sovereignty then, got it.
Do not expect others to believe sovereignty for the US either, and do not complain when they do not.
You were not one of the ones crying about election interference, were you? You are not one of the ones complaining about illegal immigrants are you?
If you got to play six degrees of Kevin Bacon to establish a connection between some BS on the other side of the world, and protection of the US...
Countries only get the sovereignty they can enforce. We need to enforce ours (we've only been doing a mediocre job enforcing ours.)
And did Iran respect our sovereignty when it stormed our embassy and took our diplomats hostage? Did they do so again last week when they ordered their terrorist sympathizers in Iraq to storm our embassy there?
In case you haven't noticed, we've been in an undeclared, low level war with Iran for the last few decades. It may now be heating up. At some point we're going to have to put them down. If it isn't now, it will be in the future.
Quote:
Originally Posted by boxus
Ok, so you do not believe in sovereignty then, got it.
Do not expect others to believe sovereignty for the US either, and do not complain when they do not.
You were not one of the ones crying about election interference, were you? You are not one of the ones complaining about illegal immigrants are you?
If you got to play six degrees of Kevin Bacon to establish a connection between some BS on the other side of the world, and protection of the US...
“The Iraqi government must work to end the presence of any foreign troops on Iraqi soil and prohibit them from using its land, airspace or water for any reason.”
Does that include Iranian troops? Just wondering because, you know, it was an Iranian general who was killed in Iraq.
We're allowed to invite guests to Iraq... (at least we were at the time).
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"negative" as in exporting less does not change the fact that without imports in the quantities stated you'd be in the hole. 
