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Study: Iran is only victor after US invasion of Iraq

January 22, 2019 at 1:06 pm

US soldiers in Iraq [The U.S. Army/Flickr]

“An emboldened and expansionist Iran appears to be the only victor” after the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, a new study prepared by the US army concluded.

A 1,300-page study commissioned by former Army Chief of Staff General Ray Odierno in 2013,  added: “At the time of this project’s completion in 2018, an emboldened and expansionist Iran appears to be the only victor.”

According to the study, the US troops withdrawal from Iraq by the end of 2011, nine years after the US-led invasion in 2003 allowed Daesh to expand its influence prompting the US to intervene in the country again.

“The Iraq War has the potential to be one of the most consequential conflicts in American history. It shattered a long-standing political tradition against preemptive wars. In the conflict’s immediate aftermath, the pendulum of American politics swung to the opposite pole with deep skepticism about foreign interventions,” the study said.

The 2003 US invasion of Iraq overthrew long-term president Saddam Hussein, through the US withdrawal was followed by the rise of Daesh and greater Iranian influence in Iraqi political spheres.

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