[lbo-talk] Obama: killing for 2012

[Chris Doss]

Iraq and Iran are currently very friendly, as opposed to being at war with each other as they were in the 80s. What the US has done is greatly increase the power of Iran in the region, to the point where the US is _actively restraining Israel from attacking Iran_ and is endorsing Iran's (possibly) fraudulent presidentual elections. This implies two things: 1) the Iraqi government is actually _not_ a client of the US (or if it is, the US does not have a problem with it being buddy-buddy with Iran, which seems odd on the surface) and so if that was a goal of the war in did not succeed and 2) the main beneficiary of the Iraq war was IRAN.

----- Original Message ----
From: C. G. Estabrook <galliher at illinois.edu>

What's the "big change in material circumstances" that altered US policy goals in the ME in a generation? The only one I can see is increasing dominance by the US and its client(s). The loss of control of Iran thirty years ago has surely been made up.