Bush(Cheney) Keeps Making Noise On Iran
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Iran, Military, The World, War
WASHINGTON — President Bush charged Thursday that Iran continues to arm and train insurgents who are killing U.S. soldiers in Iraq, and he threatened action if that continues. [...]Behind the scenes, however, the president’s top aides have been engaged in an intensive internal debate over how to respond to Iran’s support for Shiite Muslim groups in Iraq and its nuclear program. Vice President Dick Cheney several weeks ago proposed launching airstrikes at suspected training camps in Iran run by the Quds force, a special unit of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, according to two U.S. officials who are involved in Iran policy.
The debate has been accompanied by a growing drumbeat of allegations about Iranian meddling in Iraq from U.S. military officers, administration officials and administration allies outside government and in the news media. It isn’t clear whether the media campaign is intended to build support for limited military action against Iran, to pressure the Iranians to curb their support for Shiite groups in Iraq or both.
And here’s where Bush(Cheney)’s argument breaks down…
Nor is it clear from the evidence the administration has presented whether Iran, which has long-standing ties to several Iraqi Shiite groups, including the Mahdi Army of radical cleric Muqtada al Sadr and the Badr Organization, which is allied with the U.S.-backed government of Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki, is a major cause of the anti-American and sectarian violence in Iraq or merely one of many. At other times, administration officials have blamed the Sunni Muslim group al Qaida in Iraq for much of the violence.
Boy, Bush(Cheney) is just gone. He’s so bought into the Neo-Cons strategy or what? Hell, even former NeoCons don’t really believe that preemption is a viable strategy anymore.
And you can add Condi and Gates to that list…
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice opposes this idea, the officials said. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has stated publicly that “we think we can handle this inside the borders of Iraq.”
So why are we going to continue with a “suspect at best” strategy? Because that’s just what this administration does. Bush(Cheney) has been notorious for not admitting mistakes and this is no different.
Oh well.
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August 10th, 2007 at 12:45 pm
Its no longer preemption if Iran is sending arms and terrorists into Iraq. The question is, to what degree is it happening, and will responding against Iran directly make the situation worse.
The Iranians are playing just the right cards to cause mayhem and destruction without making it too obvious, so that they can get away with it because they know whatever they do to instigate that violence, political opponents will blame Bush if there were a response.
August 10th, 2007 at 8:46 pm
[...] WASHINGTON — President Bush charged Thursday that Iran continues to arm and train insurgents who are killing US soldiers in Iraq, and he threatened action if that continues. […] Behind the scenes, however, the president’s top aides … …more [...]
August 10th, 2007 at 10:29 pm
“The Iranians are playing just the right cards to cause mayhem and destruction without making it too obvious.”
The Iranians have crap cards but the U.S. has tipped its hand. This president has destroyed this countries ability to leverage any sort of power. We have nuclear weapons, and that’s about it. We have a broken army and the entire world is wondering what the hell happened to the U.S. it once knew.
It’s absolutely hilarious how this administration squawks about the dangers of a nuclear Iran, yet, it is they that have destroyed our political alliances with most of the known world, it is they that have broken our one time working armed services, it is they that have refused to admit the horrendous mistakes they have committed.
I cannot think of a more incompetent, bumbling, arrogant, corrupt administration in my living memory. Yes!!! Iran is a real threat. And yes!!! Mr. Bush, you’ve destroyed every conceivable advantage this country could have brought to bear
against it.
Get these idiots out of our White House. We need to patch this
hole-ridden ship, and we need to do it fast. I pray to God the next president is elected before this moron-of-morons does anymore damage to this country.
August 13th, 2007 at 4:20 pm
Sad thing is I think Bush will in fact start something, partly because he’s too stupid to see that we can’t win, and partly because he wants to make it even harder for whomever inherits the clusterf*ck he’s created to look better than he does.
That plus he’s so much of a schoolboy bully that he can’t deal with the idea of Iran sticking their tongues out at him, so he’s going to try to punch them - the only form of diplomacy he understands.