it's like Afghanistan in that when we leave it will all go to hell. we keep propping up that gov't -Obama keeps setting timetables
and we are unable to leave- because if we do 15 years+ of nationbuilding comes tumbling down. we truly have a tiger by the tail.
Yes the Iraq SOFA was difficult to extend it would have to have gone into negotiations with al-Sadr -
who is an Iranian puppet who didn't want us to stay. It may or may not have been successful, but US politics demanded we get out
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SA is busy trying to destroy Yemen by air campaign -but to be fair they will never use their armed forces as expeditionary -
they won't even go into Yemen -so getting them into Syria/Iraq is impossible without that 'Sunni Coalition" -
proposed by el Sisi/SA
Saudi Arabia has announced the formation of a coalition of 34 largely Muslim nations to fight terrorism.
http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/14/middleeast/islamic-coalition-isis-saudi-arabia/
The sad part of it all is that only Iran -greatly strengthened under Obama - is willing to tromp all over the ME -
for their own hegemony