Posted by Frank James at 9:43 am CST
“…The influence of the British cuts will be negative.”
So says Andrew Anthony Cordesman, the highly respected national security analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Cordesman says the British drawdown will strengthen the Shi’ite hand in southern Iraq which will lead to more ethnic cleansing of a sort, with Sunni and Christian populations being forced out of the largely Shi’ite areas in the south.
Meanwhile, Iran’s influence in that part of Iraq will only grow stronger.
What’s more, Cordesman sees an irony in that the British cuts and U.S. increases will create similar outcomes: a stronger Shia hand, the dislocation of non-Shia and deeper Iranian influence in Iraq.Read Cordesman’s analyis below.
