Welcome to the stream ok the killing of an iranian Major General has put the u. S. And iran on the brink of war but iraq is the battlefield so what lies ahead for a country already struggling with a string of domestic problems send your thoughts for todays show through twitter and you tube you could be it. Irans targeting of 2 Iraqi Military bases hosting u. S. Troops has put the world on edge with fears that terrans revenge attack for the u. S. Killing of its most important military leader who would escalate but its a rock thats in the firing line and it already has enough problems thousands of people across iraq have worn seem solemn ali and an Iraqi Militia commander killed in a u. S. Drone on tack on friday iraqis she apartment ariens have urged foreign troops to leave iraq a call the u. S. Has rebuffed but iraqs politicians are still under pressure at home as demonstrators continue their push for Major Political and economic reform for more were joined from the northern iraqi city of erbil by he were awesome and hes a journalist and analyst also on the phone in baghdad we have ayman he has been part of the protests seeking government reform since october and we are discussing his identity for his safety and joining us right here in the studio in washington Hillary Mann Leverett shes the c e o at strategy thats a Political RiskConsulting Firm and has served on the White House NationalSecurity Council under president s clinton bush at bama everybody its good to have you here lets go to bill in iraq 1st of all with he why he were if you could describe the atmosphere around you in erbil today what would you tell us. Well generally people are quite relieved by the size of the attack so i think initially people were thinking that listening to what the. Grand ayatollah said in iran that there will be an all out attack a major attack a strong revenge but this morning people walk up to. The sound of 2 blasts around the repeal but in the morning when the pictures 1st came out they didnt fall on either civilian or military targets they fell into areas with very actually with no down damage at all with no casualties at all which was quite a relief for for all the people and now everyone is starting to talk about negotiations between iran and america and they are hoping that involvement in iraq or iraq as a country be part of that negotiation between the 2 countries. It is that it is still quite tense the situation. People are still were waiting for the american response to that but after listening to president obama to president. Thinks like that that the worst is behind us could be behind us here hold tight for a moment here i want to play to something which is one of our reporters in iraq on monday he said this is before these 2 attacks happened on the iraqi and u. S. Bases and this is what people were telling have a quarter a month. And an easy mood has settled over back that scarred by decades of intermittent war people in iraqs capital know the eerie suspense that precedes one in coffee shops old and young alike who worry about being caught in the middle as the u. S. And iran threaten further escalation of the the how of the bottle we dont want the bottle to come to our country they want to start a war they want to settle accounts but we are the ones who lose young men lose money lose infrastructure we wont benefit from this. So that was simone 14 reporting just this week im wondering for you the u. S. Perspective ah officials thinking about what people down on the ground are going to be feeling experiencing do they have that tension to the have that fear in us in the us well if they do and if its personified in President Trump its really really distorted sense of whats going on on the ground what was astonishing to me was in response to whats going on and the possibility of u. S. Troops being asked to leave iraq President Trump said that 1st iraq would have to pay us back for the enormous base that we built and the enormous military base that we built the iraqis and they would have to pass back for the enormous embassy that we built as it invited here as the invasion into iraq you know its the beginning to be here. I think. Theyre very grateful that they paid that need to get to america and that all. And. I think didnt so far i can say theyre getting lately to get a lot of takes but. Well he would go ahead yes. What everything like you know is what im what im sure. He will allow hillary to. This issue of america. He will continue. On the issue of america and iran i think the people of iraq are split. Into 2 camps some of them and this is a think more all of the kurds the sunnis who thought their own peace could to Parliament Session that the resolution saying asking for the u. S. To pull out of. Iraq they boycotted the session and the mood on the street is that the u. S. Must persist stay because iraq still is unable to stand on its feet because of the threat of isis and because of the internal. Political situation that it is and still not mature enough for for the people of iraq to rely on a political process on the other hand that then straighteners in iraq they want to have a more realistic go Decision Making process a more realistic government that looks that doesnt take this and the more realistic political process that theres not take decisions based on high emotion is or based on reactions or based on serving is genders of to her against the interest of the iraqi people so they move in parliament a few days ago it was seen as a as a probably the reunion move and very little of it to do was to do with that hearing actually are available at least america to lead. Him on it i mean how tight from my because ive got you speaking of everybody hillary finished the point of us making of which i mean how tight for a moment just a 2nd so i can hear everybody i think an important change is coming in the way that President Trump is trying to change the narrative about iraq that is incredibly disturbing and important to understand americans i dont think ever really understood the true mosaic of Iraqi Society the differences the subtleties the nuances of an Iraqi Society but what President Trump is trying to do now because he thinks that were probably. Going to get expelled from iraq one way or the other he is now trying to in a sense vilify all iraqis as ungrateful for the Great American sacrifice everything that the United States interest in trying to view and what hes trying to change in the narrative that the u. S. Has done for iraqis and hes doing this by saying iraq now is the United States billions of dollars for these military bases for the for the embassy that we built in the heart of baghdad hes doing that for a very particular purpose to change the narrative domestically here in the United States in the lead up to his his Election Campaign and coming this november its dangerous its in cindy airy and it has the threat of not just the u. S. And iran fighting in iraq but hes trying to get the iraqis to appear that theyre antiamerican to just show the iraqis that the United States is leaving is leaving in this way so i guess i just need to show you. Have a look here on my laptop the conversation on you tube is going so fast that trying to isolate the comments is really difficult but theres a back and forth going on here let me give you an example you can jump off it now so that i can just pull up a couple of things for you see here what people are saying in response he must tinas is on you tube right now i would like to know what the leaders are truly planning and has a how they fill in regards to recent developments on trumps be hot hey you you were in such civil well in terms of what trump is trying to do i think he is really trying to make this about the United States having done such a great job for iraq and iraqis being ungrateful and hes trying to poison this relationship between the u. S. And iraq to justify pulling troops out of iraq that is going to have a fuel to the fire that we already see on the ground game and do you feel theres a plan for you and the aegis. And its about time. Do you feel that your government has for how to deal with the 1st gulf between iran and libya the point there is not just lets just say that the spot was something very important but the government not united so far to basically have a single season high the parliament and the government as well as a chair is actually the kurds which is as though they have like their own kind of quality and approach and then we have seen as well actually theyre so excited to see the coalition leaving iraq in a specific way the americans as well and then you have the shia kind which is actually they are so probably right wing and theyre against the day. That the american and the culmination. Of progress in iraq itself was divided especially as of late 2 days ago the problem is session that we saw only we 128. 00 when there is only 170. 00 showed up which is all of them was from one broke and we know that actually to. Some the shia outlands so they seclude this is actually the issue that is why there was a prediction and we mostly aimed at the country and that is a quote civil war between giving an end in american and programming militias and pleaded and the iraqi clue and its really stolen because what does seem out for example today is the rocket strike that happened today in a block from the iranian side of the same voices of the same value to the pact with the and learn from and to try and thats taking the law kind of was the governments are not united and senior and and and the pickaxe the difficulty of the country. He was just wondering where the antigovernment protests are standing right now were a rock is under a different kind of a fret because of the back and forth between iran and the u. S. Its ok im going to push back im going to push not going to. Thank you and im going to share that with the idea of he will stand son stand by for a moment amen thank you. You know they got the protest started with the slogan already do what i need a homeland give us our country back and one of the behaviors of the Iraqi Government that led to these protests is the leading over backwards to countries like iraq iran to countries like the United States whatever they want to the they part of the failure big part of the failure of the Iraqi Government is not being able to regulate to create a balanced 3 nation ship where neither with iran nor with the United States of america not a single american president to visit iraq and almost all of them came on and house visits all of them where secret visits they came in after arrival the visit was announced and they go to military bases meet their soldiers and then by the way some of them call the leaders of the government others just fly out and leave to other areas so neither iran nor america really respected the this sovereignty of the over the affair act as a country and this is partly mostly the fault of the government of iraq this is on one hand or theres another very important issue on the issue of that parliaments resolution 2 to shoot for to have the u. S. Troops leave the country the presence of the u. S. Troops in iraq is done by an agreement Security Agreement between the iraq a fully fledged Iraqi Government and the United States the government of the United States the current government is a caretaking government this means it doesnt have the authority of the parliament. By nature it is unable to opt out of such extreme and the government that has to renegotiate the security deal with the United States has to be an elected and for the Less Government the current one is a caretaker one so thats why really they the decision of that of the parliament is neither here nor there. Surely. Approaching your none of them. Are right. This is the only reason im pausing everybody is because theres so much response coming on from people who are watching the show if you confess and im going to put a couple of these points to you from on high i think that the point is very important for President Trump and i think maybe unfortunately for americans even more broadly than that the relevance of iraq as an individual sovereign country is really falling by the wayside and i think that was dramatically shown in President Trumps response smore ning to the iranian retaliation for the killing of course in southern money and the other iraqis who were in his party trump said this morning that it really wasnt a big deal they just struck iraq they just struck iraq i want there to resonate for everybody they just struck iraq and for me some of my colleagues here were saying well were there any american casualties when they 1st heard the news and i said well no i hear there are no american casualties and i hear there were no iraqi casualties and the response was well that doesnt really matter the concern was only about american casualties in the sovereign country of iraq this is being reflected on the line some atar some kohei on twitter says this is definitely on acceptable iraq should not be a battleground for the United States and iran iraqis to suffer it was and they just want to rebuild their country and live in peace and then this one right now manuel is actually watching as were speaking here i think the u. S. Is overstepping its boundaries why cant the u. S. Withdrawal and leave issues concerning in the middle east for middle east countries to deal with. As i said have been going on for decades you know its well theres reasons i mean for trump personally it would be humiliating so he wants to leave in a way where he is the he has done something great for his base here in the United States but more importantly what is fundamental to understand is the United States has never really sought peace and stability because if there really were peace and stability iraq would be critically important as a major. Arab military it could have thousands of men under arms with an incredible military the United States doesnt want that we do not want independent power so iraq as a fully functioning stable state with a full military the United States isnt interested we were not interested in that many other countries having fully fully independent independent power either thats why after world war 2 it was so important that both japan and germany be demit demilitarized in order to allow them to grow its economic powers thats really the only way that the United States in terms of its power politics can think about the middle east if its completely neutered of any military independence i want to show you where you leave. It he would let me just add another thought and then you can just jump off the back of of that thought because i would also approached another analysts who is based in iraq to see what his perspective might be about where do we go next im going to push everybody forward and then have a listen to your dad before we pick up our conversation. But events that happened on january 3rd there gravely impacts on. Was able to parties on in the new quarters to know what the current government the leaders of the house it would require a strong leader that has a vision for this country to implement policy that would be foreign meddling. Well t. J. This is exactly why the protests that took place in iraq on october 1st last year were very important because the demands that they had was to bring some sense into the politics of the of iraq and they called for Good Governance and a key issue of Good Governance is to to to almost entirely change the current Political Class of the country by changing the electoral no they have made some progress they elect the law was changed from this system into a district system and with the 1st with the 1st past the post voting and the election or with it in terms of the results and who wins the seat to parliament these things are all attempts to try and bring in a more Representative Government a government that has not been installed by deals between iran and the United States so far in iraq since 2003 every Prime Minister we had there had to be an agreement between iran and between then and the United States over or at least know the sites shouldnt oppose and with this kind of since you in this kind of Selection Process whoever comes to power will be weak will be indebted to either to teheran or to washington and would they would not really have the interests of the country at heart as well as a priority as we have seen when the Prime Ministers yesterday he receives a phone call from the iranians that they are going to bomb and then you received another phone call from the a man against he became like a phone operator this is not the job of a Prime Minister to receive phone calls and say im going to im going to be bombing your country he should be having a much stronger stance he should not be listening to the hardliners or the pro iranian militias who are bullying the political. Process in iraq and trying to push things in their direction or in the direction of the satisfies iran and the break her loose when when iran attacks when america attacks present silly money on all iraqi land but then they do nothing when it comes to iran attacking us bases in iraq so right there is a state there is a really weak government here in iraq and d d this is exactly why the the protests are. Our own going on they will only become stronger but there will the serious worry now everybody will take a pause from and i hear i hear a man i want to get that protest a voice into the conversation and also show you right now just have a look at whats happening here on you tube the conversation is moving so quickly and so fast and im going to pull out one comment there from you tube and that is jamie cooks and he says that there are 2 factors in iraq and the people are split and its annoying to him that the media isnt representing this is there any anything else in the way that youre seeing the media are covering what is happening between iran and iraq and the u. S. The you really want to tell the International Community very briefly go ahead. Lets get straight to something very important that actually on the collective over there and why. Actually we actually want to do that i dont see you going to Work Exchange the ridge in the vault and exit acquired it like took over d all the political as they have on their block and they grow up huge because of politicians is actually 100 percent loyal to the blog and their content and im delivering all the messages long ones and that mean as a check and youre talking about this country as one syria and lebanon and yet it has grown so it was actually the 1st the attraction that had a lot only 2018 lets go back to at least and we would see that was there the players and their limitations happen to 2013 could as a good day to create energy and there is a ping and it is likely that well we could go to the headlines of always seeing the day the peoples of the landing this fall that is why the huge mcgraws of the iraqi politicians are very and this is actually what we want to discuss will follow us there was a total the outer edges a little bit changed the divides they are still the same but we will differ on the level which is called being as wide as a. Proxy country that had merit and it was awful the problems here. Under several feet of the country we are expecting a huge demonstrations going to be have going on the one which is going to be very hardy and little see that actually kind of a. Demand that will be on that day are and im going to leave you that because because we we do not know we we are ahead of time as we thank you for that for telling us about the protest still continuing telling why is this tweet here and someone asked me he says in my opinion iran meddling into the affairs in iraq has created for tail take situation a ruckus identify the attention its now become an iranian who wants the sectarian conflicts that rocked the country no one wants a stable iraq especially the neighbors so that his perspective im just wondering knowing from your government experience and administrations from both sides of the aisle what is happening in the state department today. Theyre very concerned that the project the american project in iraq is really about to collapse now i think for many outside of the state department the idea that the United States invaded this country in 2003 and therefore is not responsible for any of the problems is a little bit would be a little bit odd and the idea that americans are so there are americans that are invested in the should pass of iraq would similarly be odd but there is a generation a generation since 2003 of american diplomats and american soldiers of americans across across the government spectrum who have been invested who have gone on 2 or 3 tours of duty whether from the military or the diplomatic corps who feel an investment in iraq and see it really on the precipice of collapse today. All right i want to show you this right here as we continue to look at the conversation that continues here online im just want to get a closing thought from he was i mean in a sentence because you are reporting the story from inside iraq what are you expecting to happen next in a sentence in a sentence he was well whats with the people of the market hoping that to happen is that if this cycle between iran and the United States continues d the prudery proxies in iraq kili protesters right to be trying to over come the protestors are bolsters the empowered and they can take over the process ok because they are. Thank you so much for joining us heather really always suppress the analysis and a man who is a protest there in iraq thank you again for joining us as well as everybody whos online the conversation continues. On twitter and any digital platform you can we just take that as a watching. People in power exposes the use and abuse of power. Around the world. On aljazeera. January on aljazeera president dont trump is that the president in history to be impeached what does this mean for the future of the u. S. Leader on the brink of an election before much chilian president ial candidate explores the defeat of left wing Political Parties a close match in america but a look at how this years World Economic forum to focus on ways to tackle the impact of Climate Change but next probation a family links to the citys regime examines if its elite may now be embracing fascist ideologies most believed gone forever with the general election out of the way breaks it is now certain how to move the u. K. Proceed with a transitional period in the coming months january on aljazeera. For the congolese the journey to work at all aboard seems unimaginable hardship i prefer to lie down because they knew id gotten to chance again life and limb on a dangerous journey through the jungle ive gone on to the rails with a nearly died. Our children go to school and live because of the trade risking it all the democratic republic of congo on aljazeera. Understand the differences and similarities of cultures across them with a timely take it will bring you the news and Current Affairs that matter to you. All ran appears to be standing down which is a good thing for all parties concerned and a very good thing for the world but the u. S. President still announces additional painful sanctions on tehran. President trumps announcement comes as iran strikes back for the assassination of caste in sin the money firing 22. 00 missiles on iraq e bay says hosting u. S. And coalition forces. Hello im Barbara Starr and youre watching aljazeera live from london also coming up a ukrainian plane crashes moments after takeoff from irans come