(picture of Iran’s Quds Force courtesy of AP via Free Beacon)

The president was insistent that the newly formed Iraqi government be an inclusive one to include Sunnis and Kurds before he would start an air campaign to degrade ISIS. That was part of the reason for his dithering while ISIS was charging towards Baghdad. On a side note, did Obama insist the new government had Christian representatives in the new government?

A few weeks ago, Maliki finally stepped down as the Prime Minister and a new PM was announced. So the bombs started dropping from American airplanes. But the new Iraqi government looked remarkably like the old boss. Maliki is the VP now and many of the new minister positions were just a deck shuffle of the previous faces.

But today, there are four new ministers that are new to the government with direct ties to Iran. According to this article in the Washington Free Beacon, they were provided information by Ashraf Campaign (ASHCAM), which advocates for Iranian refugees trying to stay alive in Iraq.

Two agents of the Iranian regime’s Quds Force have been appointed to leading roles in the newly formed Iraqi government, prompting concerns that Tehran is attempting to clandestinely exert control on Iraqi policies from within the government, according to documents furnished by Iranian dissidents close to the ruling regime.

The newly appointed Iraqi ministers of communications and municipalities are both said to be active and paid members of Iran’s Quds Force, a paramilitary group implicated in terrorist activities throughout the region, according to information provided by the Ashraf Campaign (ASHCAM), which advocates for Iranian refugees.

….Iraq’s new minister of human rights, Muhammad Mahdi al-Bayati, and the minister of youth and sports, Abdul Hussein Abtan, have both aided the Quds Force in the past, according to the documents.

Is this what the administration envisioned as an inclusive government that represents all the people of Iraq? This admin seems to be playing footsy with Iran under the table and even Kerry admitted that he thought the US should consider working together to defeat our common enemy ISIS:

Iran’s exclusion from international talks thus far does not “mean that we are opposed to the idea of communicating to find out if they will come on board or under what circumstances or whether there is the possibility of a change,” Kerry was quoted as saying on Monday during a summit on ISIL in Paris.

“Having a channel of communication on one of the biggest issues in the world today is common sense,” Kerry said.

We already know that Iran has sent in military advisers and assets to Iraq to help fight ISIS. Now that we know that Iran has infiltrated the Iraq government, isn’t it time for the president to reconsider his plan to degrade ISIS and “hopefully” destroy them?*  

I don’t agree with arming the FSA. I definitely am against helping Iraq defeat ISIS knowing they consider Iran a more reliable partner than the United States by including them in their new government.

Congress needs to stop the vote to until all the facts are on the table and cancel their vacation because this may go from bad to worse in a hurry.

(Update) And it just got worse since the new Iraqi PM is clearly an ingrate and said US combat troops are not welcome but he wants our air power:

Al-Abadi, a Shiite lawmaker who faces the enormous task of trying to hold Iraq together as a vast array of forces threaten to rip it apart, welcomed the emerging international effort, but stressed that he sees no need for other nations to send troops to help fight the Islamic State.

“Not only is it not necessary,” he said, “We don’t want them. We won’t allow them. Full stop.”

“The only contribution the American forces or the international coalition is going to help us with is from the sky,” al-Abadi said. “We are not giving any blank check to the international coalition to hit any target in Iraq.”

He said that the Iraqi military will choose and approve targets, and that the U.S. will not take action without consulting with Baghdad first. Failure to do so, he warned, risks causing civilian casualties like in Pakistan and Yemen, where the U.S. has conducted drone strikes for years.

Sounds like Iraq has picked their partner and that partner is Iran. Shouldn’t this change our equation?

*In his speech at MacDill AFB today, the president said his goal was to degrade ISIS and hopefully defeat them. This infront of some of our country’s finest.