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Reevaluating the U.S. Relationship with the Iraqi Government
(Jerusalem Post) Michael Pregent - It is time to reevaluate our relationship with the Iraqi government while supporting the Iraqi people, who have been protesting a government they view as beholden to Tehran. Instead of condemning Kataeb Hezbollah for launching rocket attacks on an Iraqi base on Dec. 27, killing an American, the government of Iraq condemned the U.S. for defending itself against a terrorist organization that answers to Iranian Maj.-Gen. Qasem Soleimani, and one that Baghdad is powerless to control or to which it is simply beholden. On Dec. 31, Abu Mahdi al-Mohandes, the commander of Kataeb Hezbollah, walked into the Green Zone in Baghdad unopposed and attacked the U.S. Embassy with his militia and several others under his control. The government did nothing to stop him. The writer, a former intelligence officer who served in Iraq from 2005-2010, works on Iranian-sponsored terrorism as a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute.