Iran target of US Gulf military moves, Gates says

[spindrifter]

Mark Tran and agencies
Monday January 15, 2007
Guardian Unlimited


Increased US military activity in the Gulf is aimed at Iran's "very negative" behaviour, the Bush administration said today.

The defence secretary, Robert Gates, told reporters that the decision to deploy a Patriot missile battalion and a second aircraft carrier to the Gulf in conjunction with a "surge" of troops in Iraq was designed to show Iran that the US was not "overcommitted" in Iraq.

Speaking in Brussels after meeting Nato officials, Mr Gates said: "We are simply reaffirming that statement of the importance of the Gulf region to the United States and our determination to be an ongoing strong presence in that area for a long time into the future."

<snip>

The increasingly confrontational pose struck by the US is a repudiation of one of the key recommendations of the Iraq Study Group, which called for the start of a dialogue with Iran and Syria in an effort to extricate the US from Iraq.

<more>

http://www.guardian.co.uk/iran/story/0,,1990962,00.html

[David Zephyr]

1. "Iran's very negative behavior"! Wow!

We lie to the world about our pretext for a pre-emptive invasion of Iraq just next door to Iran, after we invaded Afghanistan on the other border of Iran, and our new Secretary of Defense calls their behavior "very negative".

When even Chris Matthews says that the Bush Administration is looking to pick a fight with Iran and to provoke them, you know that it must be true.

[MsKandice01]

2. I feel like I'm in the middle of a bad dream that I can't wake up from...

These people are crazy.

[uppityperson]

3. more Orwellian doublethink

goes beyond pot-kettle to if you poke anything enough times, it might strike back. They are nuts.

[blues90]

4. I would imagine Iran would know our real issues

I think Iran knows just how stretched out the US military is by now . Everything is out there I would think . What does Gates think , only america gets the news and the details ?

[Mnemosyne]

5. K and R, to keep it out there. n/t

[SeaBob]

6. too many objectives, too little time.