Iraq war over: Iran won

When Operation Iraqi Freedom began, the Bush administration planned on liberating a monolithic people pressed beneath a dictator's heel.
But instead, the southern two-thirds of Iraq have de facto become "the Islamic republic of Iraq," says Ken Joseph, an Assyrian who grew up in Japan, studied in the U.S., and who has been active in Iraq since the downfall of Saddam Hussein. "We call it 'Western Iran,'" says a demoralized Joseph.
The Reverend Ken Joseph is one of many Assyrians who returned to Iraq, along with Iraqis of different ethnicities, after the U.S. invasion, equipped with high hopes that a new democratic and secular Iraq would emerge from the ashes of the old regime. Instead, he and the approximate two million Assyrians, of which many are Christian, are seeing the country divided into what Joseph calls "Shiistan" in the south, "Sunnistan" in the center and Kurdistan in the north.

Joseph said that once you head south of Baghdad Iraqi flags disappear. "All you see are the green flags of the Islamic parties." And the blatant Iranian influence that began surfacing soon after U.S. and coalition forces entered the country.
That was about the same time that an Iranian television channel broadcasting in Arabic went on the air -- roughly a week after liberation, according to Joseph.
"The Kurdish areas are doing incredibly well," says Joseph. "Internet cafes have popped up on every street corner and you can view over 100 different television channels."
Meanwhile, amid the continuing chaos in Iraq, Iran's influence is growing.

Iran's Charge d'Affaires in Iraq Hassan Kazemi met here Monday with Iraqi electricity Minister Abd al-Muhsin Shalash.
They discussed implementing the signed agreement including the expediting building nine electricity transfer plants.
Shalash expressed his country's readiness for reconstruction of its electricity sector with Iran's assistance.
He also called for implementing electricity projects from credit allocated by Iran for Iraq's reconstruction drive.
Iran has allocated one billion dollars to the reconstruction of Iraqi infrastructural projects, he said, adding the major portion of the fund will be spent on electricity industry.

Ahmed Chalabi, the convicted embezzler who headed the neo-con-backed Iraqi exile group the Iraqi National Congress, was shut out in his effort to win a seat in the new Iraqi parliament.
However, as a January 2 Knight Ridder news analysis noted, "The former exile who helped spur the U.S.-led invasion by feeding false intelligence to Washington about Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction, and who returned to Iraq after Saddam's fall to craft himself into a political leader, still has more cards to play. Characteristically, Chalabi, 61, could land on his feet in a high government post even though he failed to win even a minimum of votes from the Iraqi people."