Former vice president Joe Biden reportedly played a decisive role in enabling recently assassinated Iranian terror leader Qassem Soleimani to push the United States out of Iraq and deliver the country into the hands of Iran.
In 2010, as Iraq faced pivotal elections that decided the country's direction, Soleimani went to great lengths to ensure Iranian-backed politicians won control of the government, according to a comprehensive 2013 New Yorker profile of the terror leader by Dexter Filkins.
During that time, Filkins reported, then-vice president Biden called pro-America Iraqi politician Ayad Allawi to demand he stop trying to form a government. This crucial call paved the way for Soleimani to orchestrate an Iranian takeover of the Iraqi political system, according to interviews Filkins conducted with numerous sources.
Following the assassination of Soleimani late Thursday evening, now-Democratic presidential contender Biden issued a statement accusing the Trump administration of tossing "a stick of dynamite into a tinderbox."
Biden expressed concern about possible retaliatory attacks on American military and embassy personnel as a result of the drone strike that killed Soleimani. Soleimani is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of American soldiers and was the driving force behind last week's attack on the U.S. embassy compound in Baghdad.
Biden's role in enabling Soleimani to run wild in Iraq was not known until the New Yorker's exposé.
"The Americans knew that Suleimani had pushed them out of the country but were too embarrassed to admit it in public," Filkins reported.
"'We were laughing at the Americans,' the former Iraqi leader told me, growing angry as he recalled the situation. 'F—k it! F—k it!' he said. 'Suleimani completely outmaneuvered them, and in public they were congratulating themselves for putting the government together.'"
Pro-America politician Allawi had won the largest number of seats in the Iraqi parliament, but could not assemble a majority coalition, according to Filkins.
Allawi told Filkins that "with U.S. backing he could have built a majority. Instead, the Americans pushed him aside in favor of Maliki."
"He told me that Vice-President Joe Biden called to tell him to abandon his bid for Prime Minister, saying, 'You can't form a government.'"
"Allawi said he suspected that the Americans weren't willing to deal with the trouble the Iranians would have made if he had become Prime Minister," according to Filkins. "They wanted to stay in Iraq, he said, but only if the effort involved was minimal. 'I needed American support,' he said. 'But they wanted to leave, and they handed the country to the Iranians. Iraq is a failed state now, an Iranian colony.'"