And Tonight We're Going to War Monger Like it's Fall 2002

Bush OKs Countering Iranians in Iraq

By TERENCE HUNT

Jan 26, 11:25 AM (ET)

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush has authorized U.S. forces in Iraq to take whatever actions are necessary to counter Iranian agents deemed a threat to American troops or the public at large, the White House said Friday.

"It makes sense that if somebody's trying to harm our troops, or stop us from achieving our goal, or killing innocent citizens in Iraq, that we will stop them," Bush said. "It's an obligation we all have ... to protect our folks and achieve our goal."

The aggressive new policy came in response to intelligence that Iran is supporting terrorists inside Iraq and is providing bombs - known as improvised explosive devices - and other equipment to anti-U.S. insurgents.

"The president and his national security team over the last several months have continued to receive information that Iranians were supplying IED equipment and or training that was being used to harm American soldiers," National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said.

"As a result American forces, when they receive actionable information, may take the steps necessary to protect themselves as well as the population," Johndroe said.

Bush referred to the new policy in his Jan. 10 address to the nation in which he announced a buildup of 21,500 troops in Iraq. He said the United States would confront Iran and Syria more vigorously.

While promising tougher action, the White House said the United States does not intend to cross the Iraq-Iran border to attack Iranians. (Read More)

I’m sure we have multiple carrier groups in the Persian Gulf just to stop the Iranians from ‘supplying’ the Iraqi insurgency.

Ultimately, the Bush administration, in looking for another party to blame for their failure in Iraq, often undercuts their own argument, with the zeal of their claims often overriding a basic level of believability. Earlier in the occupation, the Iranians were blamed for offering material support to the mostly Sunni insurgency; however, after the explosive rise in ethnic cleansing at the hands of Shiite militias, it was alleged that the Iranians were involved as well. Knowing the differences between the two sides, and knowing the connections between the leaders of several important Shi’ia factions and Iran, the idea that it would be so easy to play both sides is entirely dubious. It is obvious that the administration is looking for escalation, and they will use any propaganda tool to accomplish their goals.

Meanwhile, after I nearly (nearly) fell into the trap of ‘mobile weapons productions facilities, aluminum tubes, yellow cake from Niger, Mohammed Atta meeting an Iraqi agent in Prauge, etc.’ in my more impressionable youth, and seeing the resulting chaos and misery; I am now completely immune to any and all lies told by this administration. Not only is an attack on Iran immoral and unnecessary, it is also ill-advised and a difficult proposition to see the U.S. military completing successfully at this time when also involved in two seriously deteriorating occupations. The difference between evil and madness is in the insistence on fighting an unnecessary war, and insistence on fighting an unnecessary war you can’t win.