U.S. begins evacuation of Baghdad embassy; Iranian general coordinating the defense of Baghdad

The Guardian reports that on Saturday, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel ordered an aircraft carrier and two missile-carrying ships to the Persian Gulf, hinting at the possibility of imminent U.S. air strikes against the advancing Sunni insurgents. President Obama on Friday said any strike would have to be coordinated with a political plan from Iraq’s political leaders.

Later on Sunday, the State Department’s Psaki released a statement on security at U.S. embassies, probably mindful of the ongoing controversy over the security of the U.S. facility in Benghazi nearly two years ago. Psaki said the U.S. embassy in Baghdad remained open, and that staff would “continue to engage daily with Iraqis and their elected leaders — supporting them as they strengthen Iraq’s constitutional processes and defend themselves from imminent threats.”

She said the embassy was reviewing staffing and security requirements and U.S. citizens in Iraq should “exercise caution” and “make their own contingency emergency plans; and maintain security awareness at all times.”

On Saturday, Secretary of State John Kerry spoke to the Iraqi foreign minister, Hoshyar Zebari, by phone. The State Department said Kerry “stressed … that the president is examining a range of options that could help the Iraqi security forces push back [Isis] advances.”

Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina), speaking on CNN’s State of the Nation, said that the best course of action would be for the United States to talk with Iran, which, the Guardian notes, represented a volte face from his previous calls for the authorization to declare war on the country.

“If Baghdad falls, if the central government falls, a disaster awaits us of monumental proportions,” he said.

Iran’s president, Hassan Rouhani, on Saturday hinted at a possible alignment of interests between the United States and Iran “if we see that the United States takes action against terrorist groups in Iraq” (note that Iran, Hezbollah, and the Assad regime in Syria use the term “terrorist:” to describe any Sunni groups fighting against a Shi’a regime or Shi’a-affiliated movement).

On Saturday, Iraqi officials told the Guardian that Iran had sent 2,000 advance troops across the border. General Qassem Suleimani, the commander of the Qods Force of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, is coordinating the defense of Baghdad.

The United States said in the past that the Qods Force was responsible for the killing and maiming of mmany American soldiers in Iraq.

“Why did we deal with Stalin?” Graham asked. “Because he’s not as bad as Hitler. The Iranians can provide some assets to make sure that Baghdad doesn’t fall. We need to co-ordinate with the Iranians and the Turks need to get into the game.

“We should have discussions with Iran to make sure they don’t use this as an opportunity to seize control of parts of Iraq. They’re in this, we need to put a red line with Iran.”

“To ignore Iran and not tell them ‘Don’t take advantaged of this situation’ would be a mistake,” he said.

Senator Graham also criticized the Obama administration, arguing that the president’s decision to withdraw troops from Iraq had led to the current crisis.

The United States withdrew its last troops from Iraq in 2011 after the failure of talks between the two countries over making U.S. soldiers in Iraq protected from legal action in Iraqi courts.

Graham said, “this stubborn-headed president we have who thinks he knows better than anybody else, who withdrew troops and exposed this country to the inevitable, needs to change his policies quickly.”

He added that Obama was “delusional” and “detached.” “The number of people who could die in this country from getting this wrong is going to be far greater than 4,000 [he was referring to the number of U.S. troops killed so far in Iraq; that figure is actually 4,424] because they are getting hold of weapons they did not have before,” he said.

“The economic chaos to the world is going to be far greater than anything we spend on saving Iraq. This is another 9/11 in the making.”

House Speaker John Boehner earlier this week accused Obama of “taking a nap” as ISIS marched on Baghdad.

Representative Michael McCaul (R-Texas), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, on Sunday said on ABC: “This al-Qaida faction, ISIS in Syria and now in Iraq, is so extreme, that Ayman al-Zawahiri and core al-Qaida have denounced them. That’s how dangerous they are.

“This is not some ‘down the road’ prospect. I would argue that not only is the threat great in Iraq and Syria but so [is it] to the homeland, because we have a lot of individuals over there with legal travel documents that are trained – and these are the vicious, the worst of the worst.

“If they get back into the United States or in western Europe against western targets, I see that as a biggest threat today.”

Graham said that if ISIS took Baghdad, Syria and Iraq would become the “new staging area for an attack on America”.

“My biggest fear is that they will march for Jordan,” he said, a move that he said would leave “the whole Middle East in turmoil.”

Graham said that al-Maliki should resign. The senator added that the U.S. priorities should be:

“Stop the march on Baghdad, form a new government.”

He suggested the United States should send former general and CIA director David Petraeus and former ambassador Crocker to Baghdad to form that new government there.