Again and again we were told by sundry Middle East experts that the wise mullahs had every interest in maintaining a stable Iraq. And maybe the wise ones did. But they were not the ones who went into action.

As the whole region started to teeter on the brink of chaos after the Arab revolts against the old faces of oppression began in 2011, the mullahs who had barely weathered their own “spring” in 2009 sent their Mr. Fixit, Qassem Suleimani, and his redoubtable Quds Force to deal with the problem among their allies.

Suleimani brought in his old Hezbollah protégés from Lebanon to help shore up the teetering Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria, so it wouldn’t have to negotiate with anybody. He counseled Maliki on how to deal with Sunni subversives in Iraq: arrest, force into exile or otherwise eliminate any Sunni in a position of real influence.

And the result? Syria is destroyed, and now Iraq is, too. Meanwhile Shiites who put their faith in Tehran are being slaughtered en masse. Way to go, Qassem!