Duh: Iran Killing Iraqis and US Troops (plus *not* terrorism in NM)
Posted by: Neocon in Foreign Policy, Iran, Iraq, Terrorism, The Border, tags: bait and switch, gen petraeus, green zone, Iran, Iraq, michael goldfarb, militia, petraeus, sadr, weekly standardNew article from Michael Goldfarb at the Weekly Standard:
As I understand it, a few of days ago U.S. troops started going after elements within Sadr’s militia that maintain close ties to Iran. The response was a hail of mortar and rocket fire in Baghdad and Basrah. The attacks killed quite a few people in the Green Zone and elsewhere. At the same time, Sadr, from his hideout in Iran, made a Gandhiesque call for non-violent protest. It seems clear that Sadr and Tehran are playing a game of good-cop-bad-cop/bait-and-switch/pick your metaphor. Gen. Petraeus kept it simple: Iran is shooting at Americans. Unfortunately, some seem to prefer the storyline that Sadr is leading a “peaceful protest,” and that the violence is the work of rogue elements within his Mahdi militia.
This parody is from last fall, but it’s even more true now.
Iran is targeting us, just has they have been targeting us for years. It’s time we faced up to it and started taking some real action so that we don’t lose the advances that so many of our men and women have died for during the surge.
Update: Oh, and meanwhile, Iraqi currency and explosives found in New Mexico.
The FBI is now involved in the theft of a car after it was found in Los Lunas with an explosive device and Iraqi currency inside
FBI agents say that they have ruled out terrorism…
When police arrived, they found the explosive device and less than $1,000 worth of Iraqi cash.
“We don’t know what their intentions were,” said Nuanes.
Couldn’t be terrorism. Just COULDN’T.
As Officer Barbrady would say on South Park: “Nothing to see, move it along. …that was a pigeon.”
The reality is that we can’t afford a new war with Iran ! Like it or not, now they have advantage over us and the way out of this is the exact thing we did to China. We should open negotiations and talk the through this.
As far as I know, no one is calling for a full-scale war with Iran. What some are calling for are strikes against the Iranian nuclear facilities before they have finished their development and become a much more difficult to manage foe.
I don’t see the China analogy, personally.