Iraq is on the verge of collapsing and foreign military intervention (this time invited) seems inevitable. And although US President Barack Obama is awaiting more intelligence reports before "going into" Iraq, the greed for oil, despite the so-called fracking revolution in the US, will force Washington to once again jump into the fray.

The US occupation of Iraq was always aimed at supporting one Islamic sect against another, mostly Sunnis, in the Middle East, although it also has an extended history of backing Iran's Reza Shah Pahlavi and in recent times, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, both Shiites. The US support to al-Maliki was, in fact, a plan to divide and rule Iraq (for its oil), which has failed miserably. But Washington still argues that it has achieved its objective of promoting democracy in the Middle East by invading Iraq. The truth is there for all to see.

US combat troops left Iraq in 2011, which coincided with the "Arab Spring" that saw the US-led Western powers helping militants to overthrow governments in the Middle East. Although there is little doubt that these governments were not examples of democracy, there is no denying that the countries they governed were not failed states, which they are now on the verge of becoming. Thus, it will not be wrong to say that the "Arab Spring" was nothing but an "American Spring" for arms sellers to make more money by supplying weapons to the fighting factions in the Arab world.

The author is an editor with China Daily, email: oprana@hotmail.com

(China Daily 07/01/2014 page8)