WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 14th January, 2020) The Western media and the Trump administration are fueling anti-Shia animus in the wake of the assassination of Iranian Quds force commander Qesem Soleimani which will end up backfiring and getting them evicted from Iraq, analysts told Sputnik.
Soleimani, 62, was killed on January 3 when the vehicle he was traveling in was struck by a US Reaper drone at Baghdad International Airport.
The general's death brought tensions between Iran and the United States to an all-time high, and prompted Tehran to fire multiple rockets at US bases in Iraq.
On Monday, NBC citing officials reported that President Donald Trump authorized the killing of Soleimani seven months ago after Iran destroyed a $220 million US spy drone over Iranian airspace in the Strait of Hormuz.
Critics said the news undermined Trump's claim that the Iranian leader was killed because he posed an imminent threat to Americans.
Earlier, Trump re-tweeted a photo-shopped image of two political rivals - Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi - dressed in Shia garb. The post accused the Democratic lawmakers of supporting the leader of Iran.
Institute of Gulf Affairs Director Professor Ali al-Ahmed pointed out that the assassination had dramatically exacerbated rage against the US military presence in Iraq among the majority Shia population there.
Al-Ahmed also said the Iraqi Shia were reacting to hatred and prejudice against them that is being widely expressed in the United States and other Western mainstream media.
"Please note the increased Shiaphobia in western media that started last year and went viral after the killing. The anti-Shia axis is targeting tens of millions of Shia Arabs," he told Sputnik.
The United States has already faced backlash for the Soleimani assassination including calls to leave Iraq. Iraq's parliament has issued a resolution demanding the complete withdrawal of all foreign forces in Iraq.
However, Trump National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien said Sunday that the US would leave on its own terms.
Yet analysts warned that Trump and the US government may not be given the freedom to decide if and when they exit Iraq.
University of Pittsburgh Professor of International Affairs Michael Brenner stressed that the Soleimani assassination, coming on top of the growing unpopularity and lack of credibility of the US presence in Iraq was eroding Washington's capability to maintain its armed forces there.
This development was destroying the US capability to use Iraq as a secure base from which to wage war against Iran, Brenner told Sputnik.
"Is the United States going to be drawn into a new round of serious war in Iraq? Against whom? Anyone who deals with or is sympathetic with Iran? In all probability, we'll be thrown out by the Iraqis," he said.
The Trump administration, like its predecessors, had proved incapable of strategic, coherent policy-making that recognized the realities of Iraq's population and society, Brenner explained.
"Main point: we are ruled by a bunch of ignorant jerks who are incapable of strategic thinking. Only the Zionist lobby knows what it wants; that is why they have prevailed," he said.
