Confronting Iran

Looks like the pressure is building on Iran.

British forces have been sent from Basra to the volatile border with Iran amid warnings from the senior US commander in Iraq that Tehran is fomenting a "proxy war".

In signs of a fast-developing confrontation, the Iranians have threatened military action in response to attacks launched from Iraqi territory while the Pentagon has announced the building of a US base and fortified checkpoints at the frontier.

Add to that the talk of Israel's recent strike inside Syria, possibly linked to Iran's proxy war there, and we certainly have the makings of a serious confrontation. As for the North Korean connection below, I wouldn't be surprised if they sold the stuff to Iran then dropped a dime on them. That's just how the game is played, sometimes.

Officials in Washington said that the most likely targets of the raid were weapons caches that Israel’s government believes Iran has been sending the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah through Syria…

One Bush administration official said Israel had recently carried out reconnaissance flights over Syria, taking pictures of possible nuclear installations that Israeli officials believed might have been supplied with material from North Korea. The administration official said Israeli officials believed that North Korea might be unloading some of its nuclear material on Syria.

“The Israelis think North Korea is selling to Iran and Syria what little they have left,” the official said. He said it was unclear whether the Israeli strike had produced any evidence that might validate that belief.

Comments

[Tom]

Hurray! we are going to another war again based on lies. Yeah!!!! more death, destruction and wasting of our treasury to feed Bush's ego and Cheney's stock portfolio. I love WAR!!!!!!! Next up, how about we invade Bermuda, I hear it is nice this time of year. Are you folks ready for a draft of YOUR kids and grandkids for this debacle? Are you really?

[bloodrage bob]

so you're saying you're ok with iran's brutal, institutionalized repression of women and gays, tom? what kind of sicko misogynist homophobe are YOU, you disgusting POS?

you're ok with iran firing upon/arming & training & sheltering those who fire upon our troops? you have no problem with them committing *acts of war* upon our guys?

so let's recap: tom is fine with the islamic repression of women. tom is fine with the systematic brutality exhibited towards homosexuals by iran. tom is fine with islamic iran going to war on our troops. tom is **NOT** ok with us firing back. hmmmm. osama? is that you, buddy? saaaay, what's with the fake beard and the died hair? are you a secret girlyman, like arafat was?

[Fred Beloit]

As I have his name, Mot has things backwards, don't you, Mot? Iran is the nation who wants a war, not us. They are the ones massing large forces and taking sides against us at every opportunity. Just ask your friend Hugo el Diablo Chavez.

[mensablonde]

Tom,

We're already at war with Iran, and we have been for a long, long time. I should say "Iran is already at war with us", because we didn't start this - they did. We can pretend this isn't true, but pretending isn't going to make this go away. The only thing new is that maybe, just maybe, we'll actually call a spade a spade and fight back - for real.

[rwilymz]

"you're saying you're ok with iran's brutal, institutionalized repression of women and gays, tom?"

If a war were politicked on that angle, there'd likely be a lot of support from the typically anti-war crowd. In '95 and '96, back when the Taliban was just consolidating its hold on A'stan and implementing widespread systemic repression of women, several putatively "peace-nik" womens group called for the US to unilaterally obliterate the talibanic government. Saying such mealy-mouthed things as, "We don't generally like war, but when a government represses women, that goes too far!"

I had just gotten done my sociology grad school, still had access and contacts in many of these womens groups, and had quite the laugh at them. Executing women for not hajibing up is *casus belli*; infibulation is *casus belli*; violating territorial sovereignty by invasion and commandeering strategic resources are to be met with group hugs and "understanding".

Ah, neophytes.

This is largely the same pack of folks who are now clamoring for evacuation from Iraq and wholesale transplantation into Sudan, because those poor, poor pitiable Darfuri [Fur tribe] are being systematically wiped out by the Sudanese guvmint.

Never mind that the Fur started a revolution 4, 5 years ago and absolutely sucked at it, nor that they used their own women and children as soldiers in doing it. When Sudan's national guard-for-hire shoots back, it's called "killing civilians".

Never mind that the Fur have been, for a thousand years, the African Horn's most successful [and notorious] slave traders: raiding central Africa, kidnapping men, women and children, and then selling them to Arabs as slaves. The Fur are "innocent".

And we're supposed to just up and leave Iraq and go help these poor sods. For "humanitarian" reasons.

And tom -- or mot, as the case may be -- if you're so worried about Cheney's stock portfolio making him welathy off foreign policy, then a smart investor would duplicate the guy's investments. Idealism don't fund retirement, guy.

[Captain Joe]

Les see now, Oil $80 a barrel, gold is up to over $700 an ounce, The Euro is going thru the roof. What am I missing? Oh yeah, Cheney is preparing to bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, Iran. It's time to jack up the Halliburton stock. Everything's normal.

[rwilymz]

M&M Enterprises. Milo Minderbinder ... both the "Ms".

"And the best part is, everyone has a share!"

You can retire at 40 a wealthy, wealthy man if you play both sides of the war. What's holding you back?

[seekeronos]

And what oil or other valuable resources are buried under Sudan's territory?

Nothing but dead bodies of Sudanese?

I don't see the US doing much over there then.

[BobInStamford]

Settle down heroes. You are only allowed to lose 1 war at a time.

Thank you.

[rwilymz]

"You are only allowed to lose 1 war at a time."

Time's a-wastin' then! What would you suggest we do, there, General Wrongway? You're the expert.

[Captain Joe]

Well, since the Taliban has thrown in the towel it's time to gin up another war, Cheney needs the bucks.

[rwilymz]

"since the Taliban has thrown in the towel it's time to gin up another war"

Elect the Democrats. They're willing. Take the Kosov/Iraqi "pre-emption" to Sudan. There's always a regime that needs changing somewhere.

[Cindi]

My only hope is when we do bomb Iran, the MSM carries it live.

[seekeronos]

MSM's a disappointment (yeah, what else is new).

When ye turn on the Hellivision for a moment and land on Anderson Cooper running up the death toll graphic in dayglo red 196 point type with the sad, low key music playing... one must wonder if he laments not having been of age during Vietnam to show film clips of body bags and such being stacked up.

The only redeeming segment he had to offer was the USAF hospital that patched up wounded Iraqis, and that seemingly begrudged.

I wonder if we can start questioning the radical Left's patriotism yet?