The Patriot Post® · Iran Prepares to Annex Iraq

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani told his nation Tuesday that Iran and Iran alone has the military might in the Middle East to keep the Islamic State at bay. The remarks came during a military parade commemorating the start of the 35-year-old Iraq-Iran War. “[If] terrorists begin to expand in the region, the only hope will be Iran’s army and the Revolutionary Guards,” Rouhani said. And does anyone think they would leave if they came in to wipe out the Islamic State? Rouhani continued, saying the West had little influence in the struggle: “Today, our armed forces are the biggest regional power against terrorism.” Seeing how the United States’ proxy fighters are doing against the Islamic State, the Iranian president might just be correct. The fight against the Islamic State has ground to a standstill in Iraq, as an offensive to retake Ramadi from the Islamic State has been delayed. So the U.S. turns to Syria, where only a handful of American-trained Syrian rebels are still in the fight. Many of the fighters were delayed in Turkey, but when they returned, they handed over their weapons to the al-Qaida affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra. This was exactly the worry many people had in giving arms and training to proxy fighters. As Marco Rubio said: Our military “was not built to conduct pinprick attacks.” If we want to take a simplistic route to foreign policy and focus our whole attention to the short term — dealing with the Islamic State — then maybe we should just give Iran $150 billion. Oh, wait…