No sure...I suppose the Iraqi's had a restraining hand in what we could do....so we seemed to have had a ....Hold and Release policy.....
The Irbil raid generated a lot of heat with the Iranians saying those we had captured were diplomats and some of the Iraqi highups saying we should let them go....not sure what we did with them....then came the attack in Karbala....so we have this latest ....
Yeah. If the law doesn't exist, the Iraqi parliament needs to pass it. Any non-citizen in the country undermining the govt needs to be arrested, interrogated, tried, and shot or imprisoned depending on the crime.
I'd haul any Iranians or Syrians back to Guantanamo and embarass the Iranian govt by making them beg for them back. You'd isolate the al-Sadr contingent pretty quick that way, and force the remaining factions to come together to solve the mutual problem.
A bump in troops would help with border security. Getting rid of foreigners would solve the problem quickly.