Iranian Incursions Into Iraq

This is troubling news.

Iranian troops bombed border areas near the town of Hajj Umran before crossing into Iraq, the defence ministry in Baghdad said on Sunday.

The Iraqi defence ministry also says Iran launched a similar attack on Kurdish rebel positions in the same area on 21 April.

As strange as it may sound, I wish the Iranians would actually launch something of a formal invasion into the area. That would strip away the pretense behind their actions which, through the UN, China, Russia and others cling to in an effort to preserve their commercial ties.

But the reality is the Iranians wouldn't stand a chance, as any such wholesale action would expose their military to utter destruction at the hands of an American military which could then be unleashed. They can't be foolish enough to allow that to happen.

More likely, they continue to be a hostile nuisance, hitting and running and, of course, denying their actions. It's important that incidents like this bubble up so that they can be taken into account in the larger debate around Iran. Though, that too, will ultimately result in only more frustration.

The best we'll ever get from China and Russia is a hands off policy and they don't seem close to that right now.

Comments

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Looks like Iran is getting fed up with the PPK terrorists.

http://www.iranian.ws/cgi-bin/iran_news/exec/view.cgi/3/8493

[bryan...aka point b]

Ahhhhh! The pots about to boil. Get ready.

[Sim]

It is troubling indeed! Something else the administration failed to consider when they began this whole sordid affair.

[hobo]

But the reality is the Iranians wouldn't stand a chance, as any such wholesale action would expose their military to utter destruction at the hands of an American military which could then be unleashed. "They can't be foolish enough to allow that to happen." Sunday, April 30, 2006 at 04:07 PM in Iran | Permalink

Don't count on it not happening; the Western mind has never had a clue as to how the Middle Eastern mind works. Any dissent with this thought, I suggest you review the headlines of the major US newspapers the past 4 years regarding the war.

[rwilymz]

"Something else the administration failed to consider when they began this whole sordid affair."

Just cuz you weren't aware of the likelihood doesn't mean everyone else wasn't also. That [Shi'a] Iranians would intervene on behalf of the Shi'a majority in Iraq was always considered a possibility.

Here's another thing the government is aware of that you aren't: The Sunni [and tribally-related] Syrians might intervene on behalf of the ousted Sunni Baathists.

And here's another: The Turks are almost guaranteed to stay out of everything because, well, they're Turks and until the 1920s they were the conquering occupiers of pretty much the entire middle east [see "Lawrence of Arabia"] and the Turks dislike Arabs and Arabs hate Turks.

And something else: The Kurds might very well coagulate in northern Iraq from eastern Turkey and northern Iran and throw their bullets into the ring, since the Kurds hate everyone and everyone hates the Kurds.

The government does not advertise all it knows, and will not -- and cannot afford to -- run down the entire litany of possible outcomes of its policies just so petulant wags won't have the ability to say facile things like: "Something else the administration failed to consider when they began this whole sordid affair."