Iraq is the neighbor of Iran and that fact is not lost on those in power in Iraq, despite the “reassuring” presence of American soldiers. Exerting what little they have left of their sovereignty, the Iraqi Prime Minister, Nur al-Maliki recently said:
he was concerned about military pressure aimed at Iran regarding the country’s nuclear activities, adding he would not permit U.S. forces to use Iraqi land, airspace and waterways as a means for attacking states in the region.
He said the Mideast is in a “fragile” state and “fomenting tension in the region and pushing for military action against Tehran could wreak havoc on the entire region, including Iraq.”
It’s quite possible Maliki is using his objection to the US attacking Iran from Iraqi soil as a negotiation tool for the stalled US/Iraqi security agreement . Even though the last NIE on Iran stated unequivocally that Iran had stopped its weapons program in ’03 and was at least 10 years from being able to make a nuclear device, a preemptive strike is almost certain to get the Iranians to hasten those estimates considerably.
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