Well before the Iraq war, Prime Minister Putin stated on record that Iraq might have been involved in the terrorist attack on 9/11, saying that Saddam might have been directly involve with the terrorist group Al-Qaida without any proof only to slyly renege on his earlier claims when a UN resolution was passed, thus providing an impetus for a pre-emptive strike against a third-rate military power like Iraq with little to no symmetric warfare capabilities.
That all-too-convenient excuse to start the war, in addition to those provided by Ahmad Chalabi, whose only desire was to reduce the minority Sunni Baath party to dust. That played into the cards of neocon agenda of dividing the nations thinking into a good vs. evil narrative, an eternal war doctrine similar to that of the Cold War era. Thus was the trap was set in place.
Putin, a veteran of that Cold War era, and of the Afghanistan war, knew American efforts would provide a short term and long term economic destruction for their efforts and pressed America covertly that Iraq was the bogyman and hence encouraging America into an unwinnable war which extended to the heart of Baghdad.
In 2007 America made a deal with the majority Shiite regime, a move which by and large was seen as an approach to save face, secured the Shiites as the power broker in Iraq, although that had already happened for all practical purposes.
Oil prices have increased 70% since Bush and Cheney's false flag invasion, causing America to suffer, while OPEC producing economies have prospered largely. The increasing oil exacerbated the failings of the dollar and derivatives market bubble, problems that contributed to the plague in America today. These problems are added to America’s liabilities of over 50 Trillion, and countless more trillions to come for healthcare liabilities. In addition, they highlight American strategic weakness and limitations in this war, and have served to strengthen Americas fallibilities. It is a widely held belief that any military aggression especially recklessly against an asymmetric warfare capable nation will be the end of the dollar, and the rise of Oil producing nations like the OPEC will totally collapse the American economy.
Hence the reckless Israelite pursuit of preemptive strike against Iran has been reduced to nothing more than that, a reckless drive for hegemony.
At this moment, America is in peril. The Neocon agenda, through extreme shortsightedness and unfounded emasculation of good and evil has a massive blowback, causing extremism over the past decade to not decrease but increase 10 fold. Anti-Americanism has not decreased, and even those who initially sympathized with American foreign policy have been outnumbered by a 10-fold growth in those who are apathetic, if not altogether weary of it.
The crossroad is here, if America proceeds on its path of fiscal carelessness and continually prolifigate spending while waging a war against an ideology they cannot defeat, if they continue to be hijacked from within by the neocons and Zionist lobbyists, then her time is running out. If American citizens do not breach this crucial gap between the middle east and all Muslim nations soon, they will find themselves isolated, and trapped within the hundreds of military bases that they constructed, accepted by none and resented by everyone, except from a few holdouts from Western Europe and Israel.
The time is now to choose, while America still has a choice. This choice is between liberty and a failed policy of tyranny, while countries are still willing to listen. Due to failed hegemonic neocon policies doctored after Cheney against other nations, there aren’t many holdouts left. It was clear that time is running out, when 130 Nation states supported Iran's nuclear proliferation program against a few holdouts on the UN security council. If another Neocon sneak his way into the nest American presidency it will be guaranteed to be the end of America, the beginning of WW3, possibly the end of civilization. You cannot put it past the nuts and idiotic chickenhawks to dream up those scenarios.