Mr. Putin’s popularity is soaring in Iraq’s Shiite heartland for his military raids in Syria. Credit Sabah Arar/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images NAJAF, Iraq — One of the most popular Facebook posts in Iraq ’s Shiite heartland is a Photoshopped image of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia dressed in the robe of a southern tribal sheikh. It was the American-led invasion in 2003 that toppled Saddam Hussein and empowered Iraq ’s long-repressed Shiite majority. The United States also took the lead more than a year ago to assemble a coalition to conduct airstrikes in Syria and Iraq against the Sunni militants of the Islamic State. But with the struggle against the Islamic State largely stalemated, it is the naked display of Russian military power in neighboring Syria, as well […]