We are at war with Iran. The bombs just haven't started falling yet. For the last year Iran has been the target of Administration rhetoric but last week Bush announced that we will engage them in battle. Tucked away in the middle of the Escalation-in-Iraq speech was this little tidbit:
“Succeeding in Iraq also requires defending its territorial integrity and stabilizing the region in the face of extremist challenges. This begins with addressing Iran and Syria. These two regimes are allowing terrorists and insurgents to use their territory to move in and out of Iraq. Iran is providing material support for attacks on American troops. We will disrupt the attacks on our forces. We'll interrupt the flow of support from Iran and Syria. And we will seek out and destroy the networks providing advanced weaponry and training to our enemies in Iraq.”
Here’s the plan: first we establish that Iran is a threat. They’re developing nuclear weapons, they harbor terrorists, their leader is a bad man and all the stuff we heard about Iraq in 2002. Next we set the stage by deploying a Navy Strike force to the Persian Gulf with aircraft carriers and cruise missiles. While we’re at it we deploy patriot missiles into Iraq. What good are cruise and patriot missiles against insurgents with IEDs? Not much but they'd be great for targeting Iranian facilities and protecting the fleet from ground to ship missiles. Suddenly putting an Admiral in charge of the area makes sense! Then stories are planted in mainstream media that seem to bear out Iran’s direct danger to our troops. ABC, for instance, reported that military intelligence found “dozens of Iranian supplied . . . Explosive Form Projectiles” shipped into Iraq. One paragraph later the devices are “believed to be of Iranian origin”. Are they Iranian or not? Next the US goads Iran and Syria into a diplomatic dispute, like maybe busting into a consulate annex and arresting a half dozen diplomats. US intelligence tells us they aren't diplomats, Iran says they are. There’s that military intelligence again! All that’s left is to create a border incident and it's shock & awe all over again.
We have wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia. Where do you get the troops to open another front? The reserves and guard. Until last week the limit for active duty performed by the reserves and guard was 24 months. The day after Bush’s speech about the “surge” that time limit was abolished.
Can we really afford to leave this clown in office for two more years? Won't somebody give him a BJ so we can impeach the fool?
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/15/washington/politicsspecial/15strategy.html?_r=1&oref=slogin US plans for Iran
http://www.breitbart.com/news/na/070112000141.7hz02312.html US raid on Iranian consulate
http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/01/new_arms_shipme.html Weapons declared Iranian then “believed to be Iranian”.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070112/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_iraq_military Pentagon lifts limits on reserve active duty time
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,1990463,00.html Deployments suggest escalation into Iran.