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Iraqi Shiite politician Jalal Al-Din Al-Saghir said in an August 25, 2019 speech that aired on Al-Ayam TV (Iraq) that the Shiite movement in Iraq has been standing up to America, spitting in its face, and confronting and retaliating against Israel. Al-Saghir claimed that the U.S. controlled the Baath Party and that it effectively ruled Iraq between 1968 and 2003, and he said that the reason that America has been unable to replace Saddam Hussein the same way he claimed it replaced Egypt's Hosni Mubarak with Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi is because the Shiites have taken part of America's "political share" in Iraq. He added that the conflict with the U.S. over political influence in the region is not over, but that what has been achieved in Iraq since 2003 has been a great disaster for American policy.
Following are excerpts:
Jalal Al-Din Al-Saghir: Today, as you can see, the Shiite movement is standing up to America and spitting in its face without caring. It confronts Israel and it responds to its [actions] in kind, and it even overcomes Israel, making it think 1,000 times before getting into trouble with it. Whoever accomplishes this has made a great achievement. But your enemies want you to despair of everything so that they can come and strip you of everything.
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America has ruled Iraq continuously since 1968. Before that, Britain ruled here. Don't be fooled by the various governments and coups – they were all run by either the British or American intelligence agencies. The Americans took power from the British in 1963, when they brought the Baathists in, and then the British reclaimed power by means of Abdul Salam Arif. They remained in power until the Baathists arrived in 1968. They ruled Iraq from 1968 until 2003. When they thought that the Saddam card burned out, they wanted to replace him with another Saddam. What happened? Why couldn't they do it? They did this in Egypt, and you can see that it worked. They removed Mubarak and brought in Al-Sisi. They fooled the people by bringing Morsi and people like him, but, ultimately, it was leaders that they brought up who came to power. The same happened with the rest of the regimes. Why didn't it work in Iraq? I am one of the people who witnessed what happened behind the scenes, and I know exactly what took place. To sum it up, the heart of the problem is that we took from America what it has considered to be its political share in the region. We have not taken it entirely. It is a conflict. Sometimes we win and sometimes we lose. But what has been achieved in this period [since 2003] is a great disaster for American policy. This is why the U.S. [administration] is being accused of losing Iraq.
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