http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070131/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iran_war_cloudsThis has got to be the worst piece of news I've read, and it proves that Kerry's worst fears which he expressed on the Senate floor were, unfortunately, very prescient.
Citing Iranian involvement with Iraqi militias and Tehran's nuclear ambitions, the Bush administration has shifted to offense in its confrontation with Iran — building up the U.S. military in the Persian Gulf and promising more aggressive moves against Iranian operatives in Iraq and Lebanon.
snip
Iran and the United States are already sparring on the ground.
On Jan. 20, militants kidnapped and killed four American soldiers in a raid in Karbala, and a fifth American was killed in the firefight. The attack was so well planned and executed that Iraqi officials suspect Iran may have helped Shiite militiamen carry it out , perhaps in retaliation for the arrest of five Iranians by U.S. troops in northern Iraq.
snip
Since the Karbala raid, U.S. saber-rattling has intensified. President Bush said this week that U.S. forces in Iraq would take action against Iranian operatives in the country, while insisting he had no intention of attacking Iran.
"If Iran escalates its military action in Iraq to the detriment of our troops and/or innocent Iraqi people, we will respond firmly," Bush told National Public Radio.
Although little evidence has been made public , U.S. officials have long insisted that Iran was supplying weapons and training to Shiite militias in Iraq, including some that have killed American troops.
snip
The war of words has raised fears among both Democrats and Republicans in Congress that the United States and Iran are drifting toward armed conflict at a time when America is struggling against determined foes in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"What I think many of us are concerned about is that we stumble into active hostilities with Iran without having aggressively pursued diplomatic approaches," Sen. Barack Obama said Tuesday .
It has also unnerved the Iraqi government, many of whose members have close ties to Iran.
"We have told the Iranians and the Americans, `We know that you have a problem with each other but we're asking you, please, solve your problems outside of Iraq,'" Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki , a Shiite, told CNN on Wednesday. "We do not want the American forces to take Iraq as a base to attack Iran ... we will not accept Iran using Iraq to attack American forces. But does this exist? It exists and I assure you it exists."
As the rhetoric grows more strident, a U.S. military official in the Gulf likened the U.S.-Iran standoff to the buildup in hostility in Europe before World War I, when the assassination of the heir to the Austrian throne triggered a tragic war that engulfed a continent.
As I have highlighted above, this is what the article tells us:
1. No diplomacy with Iran has created this disaster
2. Bush is going to use Brian Freeman's death as well as the other 4 soldiers killed as an excuse to ramp up war with Iran.
3. NO evidence has been offered for this claim.
4. Maliki is playing both sides here -- on one hand, "Iraqi officials" blame Iran for that raid in Karbala, but on the other hand, he tells America and Iran to have their war somewhere else.
5. Everything is escalating with more build up in the Persian Gulf
6. Barack Obama earns points for being the first top tier presidential candidate to NOT saber rattle for war with Iran. Good for him.
So. Color me scared shitless and angry as hell.
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