In the meantime the pro-Iranian/anti-USA propaganda in Iraq can play up the blatant violations of Iraqi sovereignty over the past couple of weeks. A set of air strikes that the Iraqi governments asked the US to *not* do. And now a drone strike on their capital’s airport that they probably were not even notified about until it happened.

And from some things I read the trends in Iraq were running negatively towards Iran and the militias they supported as interfering too much. Plus I saw at least a few comments that the “attack” on the US embassy had been arranged and carried out in order to provoke an over response by the US and achieve exactly this sort of diplomatic rupture.

And further erosion of the US influence in the Middle East benefits Russia, China, and Iran. Whether the Saudis begin to freak out about this at some point is an interesting point to consider since if the USA draws further back into isolation they don’t have the military power to hold off Iran by themselves and Iraq as a buffer seems to be eroding away as well.