Iraqis or Iranians who have migrated to a place like the United States find that it takes several generations to completely dilute enough of the religious and ethnic animosities that make the Middle East so toxic and hard to govern. After centuries of Moslem cultural isolation it came as a shock, in the mid-20 century, as Western films and TV became widely available in the Middle East. Suddenly there as exposure to a different way of doing things that did not depend on religion but did demand much less corruption and a lot more tolerance to other ethnic and religious groups. Watching these two systems for several generations has made it clear who has a better life. Even the popular Middle Eastern custom of blaming local problems on foreign influence is losing support. As the Western saying goes, “we have met the enemy and they are us.” Cultural attitudes are slow to change because conservatives see such change as a disaster, not an opportunity. ...
Iraq has slipped into an unofficial civil war between pro and anti-Iran factions. Iran has used force against anti-Iran protesters, responsible for most of the 800 protesters killed since the protests began in October 2019. These deaths have exceeded the casualties caused by Islamic terrorists. Half the deaths have been in Baghdad and Iraqis know Iran is a big fan of shooting protesters. In the same time period over a thousand protesters in Iran were killed. The Iraqi government is in chaos because the parliament contains a mix of pro and anti-Iran members plus a lot of members who are pro-Iran only because they are being bribed or intimidated by Iran.
Do read it all.
The battle against Iraqi corruption and Iranian influence (including the pro-Iran PMF militias) is basically Phase IX of the Iraq War.
Not that fighting the greatly degraded Sunni Arab terrorists like ISIL isn't important. But the failure to fight corruption and the Iranians led to the rise of the ISIL caliphate in 2014. Let's not make that mistake again.
As Strategypage notes, there is cause for optimism as Iraqis and the Arab world in general recognizes the problem of corruption and as Iran is stumbling under internal and external pressures.
Work the problems. In half a century if we stick with this, Iraqis and Iranians might be arguing that they can't be trusted with the instruments of war because they might revert to their old habits.
