Lawfare
Editor’s Note: The United States has long struggled to separate Baghdad from Tehran, trying to orient Iraq more toward moderate states in the Arab world. Katherine Harvey, the author of “A Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: The Saudi Struggle for Iraq,” contends that U.S. efforts failed in part because of Saudi Arabia’s counterproductive policies. Riyadh, she argues, rebuffed Iraqi efforts at a rapprochement, pushing the country closer to Iran.
Daniel Byman
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Almost 20 years after the invasion of Iraq, and more than 10 years after the original U.S. withdrawal, the standard narrative of the Iraq War is now well established. President George W. Bush ordered the invasion expecting to find weapons of mass destruction and aspiring to establish a Middle Eastern How Saudi Arabia Pushed Iraq Into the Arms of Iran