That's not true, Abadi is doing a good job by working closely with the US. There is no regional power which has a non Islamist leadership. All of them have an agenda which will turn Iraq into a proxy battleground. Only US presence can deter them from that which is why the US can be beneficial. Say Abadi allied with Iran against the US/Gulf, what do you think others will do ? Pour in arms en masse like in Syria and no one could stop it. Only the US is currently deterring them from doing so openly and on a large scale, if not for them they would do it. Iran would do so as well and the result will be hell.
Not the US, it's Obama which is not willing to intensify assistance whereas for example John Boehner from GOP states the US should do more sending forward advisors and forward air controllers. Forward advisors & forward air controllers would have a big impact as IA/PMF units lack quality battlefield leaders. You can see this with Abrams tanks being lost by being sent in area's tanks don't belong in (marshes,trenches with dense foliage making a perfect environment for ISIS ambush ) all due to poor decisions by the tank commander. Wouldn't have happened with forward advisors.
Not that everything the US did has been good, after all they're the ones imposing inclusiveness which means many terrorists in parliament in the army but to drop them and ally with a neighbor will have far worse consequences. Allied with the Arabs means the entire Iranian front becomes hostile whilst this country has weak armed forces, allied with Iran means groups like Kataib Hezbollah will grow and be used for external wars, that will allow the US and others to bomb the country. Hence i'm in favor of larger US presence, we cannot trust local politicians neither any neighbors. All of them have plans which are to use this country for further regional wars. Maliki shouldn't have kicked out the US in 2011, none of this would've happened on such a scale if he extended the SOFA. This country will need at least 10 years of foreign military presence to deter others before it can stand alone again, and I think Syria will have the same afterwards if they're left on their own they'll be kicked around by the region whoever rules it.
I didn't say Iraq should form an alliance with Iran, just focus on fighting IS instead of listening to outsiders spreading bs against PMF. That 'inclusiveness' you said has killed many Iraqi army and PMF troops, it's not a small matter.
Iran hasn't asked Iraq for anything, neither for 'influence' nor for any political pay back. We were the first who started sending arms to Iraq (to all groups including even Kurds) when U.S was playing Iraq over giving even helicopters and missiles, let alone F-16s. I won't even mention Gulf countries and their role.
There is too much bs being spread against PMF/Shia forces, look at Ramadi and Anbar now, they same terrorists who allied with IS once are now asking for PMF to kick their IS brethren out.
Of course I don't claim that Iran does it all for Iraq itself. Defeating Daesh is in our interest, but it's certainly not in interest of some certain countries.
No matter how much others whine about Iran's role in Iraq, we will help Iraq as long Iraqi troops ask for it. The minute Iraq asks Iran to leave, we will do it and let Iraqis themselves fight Daesh. There is a reason why Abadi doesn't ask for it. It has nothing to do with 'causing trouble'. Abadi himself knows that without PMF, Iraqi army can't do much against Daesh and he knows Iran is actually helping IAF and PMF to fight IS.
And please, don't compare Iran's role in Iraq with rest of Gulf countries. We didn't force ourselves on Iraq, we helped a friend when it asked for it and we don't expect anything in return.
U.S is responsible for all this misery in first place, the fact that you still trust U.S amazes me. You don't even see how they are playing Iraq. Why aren't they giving the F16s or Apaches?
If U.S had toppled Saddam in 1991 instead of sanctioning Iraq to death, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis would be alive today, but I'm not going to tell you what's good for your country, and I wasn't implying any sort alliance with Iran, neither I said Iraq should replace U.S with Iran. I'm asking you to see the bigger picture. You know exactly what kind of nasty game U.S and Gulfies have played in Iraq. You may not like some of Iran's policies, but please don't tell me that Iran has 'other agendas'. We have respected Iraq's sovereignty all along.
