Did the invasion of Iraq benefit Iran?

[they don't love you like i love you]

Anyone who denies this is pretty damn delusional.

[phk]

Yes..

But BRTD "benefit" is too light of a word

Anyone with half a brain knows that Bush "won" Iraq for Iran, not for America.

[7,052,770]

what do you mean by "benefit"?

[John Dibble]

I'm sure it both benefits and inconveniences them, but I can't say one way or another long term.

[KillerPollo]

Invasion of Iraq was cleraly y now, for OIL. despite the fact that there are more vile, hatefull dictators in the same region who are allied w/ the US. It' basically like "They're sons of bitches, but they're OUR sons of bitches".

[J. J.]

Did Iran benefit from not having Hussein of the Western border?  Yes.

Did Stalin benefit from not having Hitler on his Western border?  Yes.

What's your point?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Short term; Yes. Long term; probably not

[Frodo]

Considering that the situation for the Iranian government changed from a regime headed by Saddam Hussein that was weak and rotting from within, to being flanked on two sides by the 'Great Satan' itself -the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan, I do not believe that they considered themselves to have benefited all that much from our ouster of Saddam Hussein -at least not initially.   

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Considering that the situation for the Iranian government changed from a regime headed by Saddam Hussein that was weak and rotting from within, to being flanked on two sides by the 'Great Satan' itself -the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan, I do not believe that they considered themselves to have benefited all that much from our ouster of Saddam Hussein -at least not initially.   

Fools like you have missed out on the fact that Chalabi is an Iranian spy. Someone should arrest him when he's in DC.

[J. J.]

Considering that the situation for the Iranian government changed from a regime headed by Saddam Hussein that was weak and rotting from within, to being flanked on two sides by the 'Great Satan' itself -the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan, I do not believe that they considered themselves to have benefited all that much from our ouster of Saddam Hussein -at least not initially.   

Fools like you have missed out on the fact that Chalabi is an Iranian spy. Someone should arrest him when he's in DC.

I disagree with Frodo's answer, but what does Chalabi have to do with the question?

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Considering that the situation for the Iranian government changed from a regime headed by Saddam Hussein that was weak and rotting from within, to being flanked on two sides by the 'Great Satan' itself -the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan, I do not believe that they considered themselves to have benefited all that much from our ouster of Saddam Hussein -at least not initially.   

Fools like you have missed out on the fact that Chalabi is an Iranian spy. Someone should arrest him when he's in DC.

I disagree with Frodo's answer, but what does Chalabi have to do with the question?

The war was given to us by Iranian spies.

[phk]

In the run-up to war with Iraq, Iranian intelligence was playing the U.S. like a violin – with the knowledge and full cooperation of certain major (and minor) – players in the U.S. government.

Fascinating. As I've said before, anyone could have seen that the invasion of Iraq by U.S. and British forces would hand most of the country over to the Iranians, and I was hardly the only one to foresee this:

"Patrick Lang, former director of the [Defense] ntelligence [A]gency's Middle East branch, said he had been told by colleagues in the intelligence community that Chalabi's U.S.-funded program to provide information about weapons of mass destruction and insurgents was effectively an Iranian intelligence operation. 'They [the Iranians] knew exactly what we were up to,' he said. He described it as 'one of the most sophisticated and successful intelligence operations in history.' 'I'm a spook. I appreciate good work. This was good work,' he said."

Good – but apparently not good enough to fool the U.S. indefinitely: last year, Chalabi's generous subsidy from the U.S. government was abruptly halted. Not only that, but his Iraqi headquarters was raided by U.S. plainclothes agents acting in concert with Iraqi government soldiers. It was alleged that the Iraqi exile leader and his group had betrayed their American patrons by supplying Tehran with vital U.S. secrets. According to several news outlets, the charge was that Chalabi had revealed to the Iranians that we had broken their internal code. An investigation was launched, and Pentagon employees – several of them high-ranking – were given polygraph tests as they were questioned by the FBI.

As I have said before, the Chalabi-neocon-Iranian axis of deception functioned like a two-way transmission belt, relaying bogus "intelligence" on Iraq's alleged WMD to the White House and also mining U.S. secrets and passing them on to their foreign sponsors – not only Tehran, but also Tel Aviv.

[they don't love you like i love you]

Considering that the situation for the Iranian government changed from a regime headed by Saddam Hussein that was weak and rotting from within, to being flanked on two sides by the 'Great Satan' itself -the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan, I do not believe that they considered themselves to have benefited all that much from our ouster of Saddam Hussein -at least not initially.   

They went from having their archnemesis on their western border to the only other country in the world ran by Shiites that is very friendly and cozying up to them. Reestablishing diplomatic relations with Iran was one of the first things the new Iraqi government did.

[J. J.]

Considering that the situation for the Iranian government changed from a regime headed by Saddam Hussein that was weak and rotting from within, to being flanked on two sides by the 'Great Satan' itself -the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan, I do not believe that they considered themselves to have benefited all that much from our ouster of Saddam Hussein -at least not initially.   

Fools like you have missed out on the fact that Chalabi is an Iranian spy. Someone should arrest him when he's in DC.

I disagree with Frodo's answer, but what does Chalabi have to do with the question?

The war was given to us by Iranian spies.

And what does that have to do with the question?

[phk]

Not to mention signing a defense pact with Iran.

[phk]

Considering that the situation for the Iranian government changed from a regime headed by Saddam Hussein that was weak and rotting from within, to being flanked on two sides by the 'Great Satan' itself -the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan, I do not believe that they considered themselves to have benefited all that much from our ouster of Saddam Hussein -at least not initially.   

Fools like you have missed out on the fact that Chalabi is an Iranian spy. Someone should arrest him when he's in DC.

I disagree with Frodo's answer, but what does Chalabi have to do with the question?

The war was given to us by Iranian spies.

And what does that have to do with the question?

If those that provided us the intel were working for Iran, it was obviously in Iranian interests to send us into Iraq.

They outsourced thier dirty work to us.

It was Khomeini's dream in the 1980s to have Saddam overthrown and have people like Sadr, Sistani, Chalabi, Jaafari in power.

Iran is pointing an extremely powerful Shiite dagger at its Sunni neighbors now.

[ATFFL]

I'm sure Iran loves having the US Army on two sides of them.

[phk]

I'm sure Iran loves having the US Army on two sides of them.

They even love it when the army on one side has signed a defense pact with them.

[Citizen James]

Depend on who in Iran you're talking about. 

It definitely helped the hardliners - giving them a chance to whip up the paranoia amidst the populus with paranoia about the posibility of an American invasion and toppling the hated secular dictator Hussein.

For the reformers and moderates, it probably hurt quite a bit as it lessened their political clout signifigantly.  They probably didn't like Hussein either, but they really don't want war with the US either.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

I'm sure Iran loves having the US Army on two sides of them.

Ummm, what are we going to with those? There aren't all that many in Afganistan anyways.

Iran has long been enemies with Saddam. Now they have a fellow sh**te controlled government there. I don't think Iran has been secretly this happy with us since the Iran-contra scandal.

[J. J.]

Considering that the situation for the Iranian government changed from a regime headed by Saddam Hussein that was weak and rotting from within, to being flanked on two sides by the 'Great Satan' itself -the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan, I do not believe that they considered themselves to have benefited all that much from our ouster of Saddam Hussein -at least not initially.   

Fools like you have missed out on the fact that Chalabi is an Iranian spy. Someone should arrest him when he's in DC.

I disagree with Frodo's answer, but what does Chalabi have to do with the question?

The war was given to us by Iranian spies.

And what does that have to do with the question?

If those that provided us the intel were working for Iran, it was obviously in Iranian interests to send us into Iraq.

They outsourced thier dirty work to us.

It was Khomeini's dream in the 1980s to have Saddam overthrown and have people like Sadr, Sistani, Chalabi, Jaafari in power.

Iran is pointing an extremely powerful Shiite dagger at its Sunni neighbors now.

And again I ask, how is any relationship between Iran and Chalabi involved in Iran's comfort level.  I can understand why Iran would make Hussein "go away," but what does Chalabi have to do with it?  We wanted Hussein to "go away" as well; so what if the interests of Iran and US converge in this situation?

[phk]

Considering that the situation for the Iranian government changed from a regime headed by Saddam Hussein that was weak and rotting from within, to being flanked on two sides by the 'Great Satan' itself -the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan, I do not believe that they considered themselves to have benefited all that much from our ouster of Saddam Hussein -at least not initially.   

Fools like you have missed out on the fact that Chalabi is an Iranian spy. Someone should arrest him when he's in DC.

I disagree with Frodo's answer, but what does Chalabi have to do with the question?

The war was given to us by Iranian spies.

And what does that have to do with the question?

If those that provided us the intel were working for Iran, it was obviously in Iranian interests to send us into Iraq.

They outsourced thier dirty work to us.

It was Khomeini's dream in the 1980s to have Saddam overthrown and have people like Sadr, Sistani, Chalabi, Jaafari in power.

Iran is pointing an extremely powerful Shiite dagger at its Sunni neighbors now.

And again I ask, how is any relationship between Iran and Chalabi involved in Iran's comfort level.  I can understand why Iran would make Hussein "go away," but what does Chalabi have to do with it?  We wanted Hussein to "go away" as well; so what if the interests of Iran and US converge in this situation?

Well apparantly, I like to be comfortable with the people whose paycheck I'm handing out.

This sort of functions like a two-way transmission belt, relaying bogus "intelligence" on Iraq's alleged WMD to the White House and also mining U.S. secrets and passing them on to their foreign sponsors.

If you remember fraud, last year, Chalabi's generous subsidy from the U.S. government was abruptly halted.

Not only that, but his Iraqi headquarters was raided by U.S. plainclothes agents acting in concert with Iraqi government soldiers. It was alleged that the Iraqi exile leader and his group had betrayed their American patrons by supplying Tehran with vital U.S. secrets. According to several news outlets, the charge was that Chalabi had revealed to the Iranians that we had broken their internal code. 

Iran obviously has more to gain from removing Saddam and getting a pro-Iran government elected than what we do.

Conservatives obviously never give anybody this special sort of victim status to anyone besides well.. Nazis.

[Angel of Death]

Short term; Yes. Long term; probably not

More like the complete opposite.

[The Duke]

It has replaced one threat to Iran with another.  Whether one is greater than the other is yet to be determined.

[they don't love you like i love you]

It has replaced one threat to Iran with another.  Whether one is greater than the other is yet to be determined.

The new Iraqi government is very friendly to Iran. Hardly a threat.