The New York Times, in a review published in the aftermath of the Mosul operation, wrote that the U.S. was the actual defeated party in the Iraq war.
The article stated that the United States invaded Iraq 14 years ago to topple Saddam Hussein and has shed vast amounts of blood there. The NYT claims that the Bush government initiated the massacre and invasion with the false promise of bringing so-called democracy to the country, as they “saw Iraq as a potential cornerstone of a democratic and Western-facing Middle east.”
The NYT, reporting that Tehran interpreted the developments disparately, during the process in which the U.S. was preparing for the occupation, wrote, “From Day 1, Iran saw something else: a chance to make a client state of Iraq, a former enemy against which it fought a war in the 1980s so brutal. If it succeeded, Iraq would never again pose a threat, and it could serve as a jumping-off point to spread Iranian influence around the region. In that contest, Iran won, and the United States lost.”
The journal asserts that Iran’s main objective in the region is to actively control a corridor extending from Tehran to the Mediterranean. “Iranian influence is dominant,” the NYT quoted Iraq’s former foreign minister referring to Iran’s influence on Iraq.
The NYT said Iran’s occupation of Iraq increased tension for religious sects in the region, and that Iran tried to expand its influence in Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Afghanistan, as well as Iraq, utilizing soft and hard power to this end.
