Kerry finally notices that Iraq is an Iranian client state, tells Maliki to stop Iran flights to Syria

Maliki and Kerry, Maliki and Ahmadinejad: Compare and contrast

I've been predicting this since at least 2006: the chief beneficiary of our misguided Wilsonian adventure in Iraq is Iran. But no one in Washington has noticed yet.

June 27, 2006: "Of course, Ahmadinejad may be jumping the gun a bit as far as that is concerned, but he is certainly doing all he can to bring into being a Shi'ite client state in Iraq."

September 13, 2006: "Here we see looming in Iraq the Shi'ite client state of Iran that the U.S. has unwittingly helped put into place with its short-sighted democracy project."

October 31, 2006: "Is al-Maliki on the road to creating the Shi'ite client state that the Iranians have been trying to foster in Iraq for quite some time now?"

February 11, 2007: "Iran continues its efforts to create a Shi'ite client state in Iraq."

June 10, 2008: "Or are U.S. troops the main obstacle to Iraq's becoming a full-fledged client state of Iran?"

November 12, 2008: "Very soon now the President of the United States and the President of Iran will sit down, without preconditions, and hash this out, and clear everything up before Iraq turns fully into the Shi'ite client state that the Iranians covet."

July 1, 2009: "Their goal of creating a Shi'ite client state is closer than ever to being realized."
July 30, 2009: "Was this what we have been fighting for in Iraq all these years? An Iranian Shi'ite client state in Baghdad?"

"Kerry warns Iraq on Iran flights to Syria," by Matthew Lee for the Associated Press, March 24 (thanks to all who sent this in):

BAGHDAD (AP) — Just days after the 10th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry confronted Baghdad for continuing to grant Iran access to its airspace and said Iraq's behavior was raising questions about its reliability as a partner. Speaking to reporters during a previously unannounced trip to Baghdad, Kerry said that he and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had engaged in "a very spirited discussion" on the Iranian flights, which U.S. officials believe are ferrying weapons and fighters intended for the embattled Syrian government.

Kerry said the plane shipments — along with material being trucked across Iraqi territory from Iran to Syria — were helping President Bashar Assad's regime cling to power by increasing their ability to strike at Syrian rebels and opposition figures demanding Assad's ouster.
"I made it very clear that for those of us who are engaged in an effort to see President Assad step down and to see a democratic process take hold ... anything that supports President Assad is problematic," Kerry said at a news conference at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad after meeting separately with Maliki at his office. "And I made it very clear to the Prime Minister that the overflights from Iran are, in fact, helping to sustain President Assad and his regime."...

http://www.jihadwatch.org/2013/03/kerry-finally-notices-that-iraq-is-an-iranian-client-state-tells-maliki-to-stop-iran-flights-to-syri.html