Is it fair to say that the Iranian-backed special groups in Iraq are responsible for the murder of hundreds of American soldiers and thousands of Iraqi soldiers and civilians?"It certainly is. ... That is correct," said Petraeus.
Now wait just a minute... Let's see some real evidence, some proof of that. More than just the word of a man sent over there to support Bush and his ambitions. We went to war with Iraq because Bush told us Iraq had WMD's and was "only weeks away" from attacking the United States. Remember that?
Petraeus told the House Armed Services Committee:
Unchecked, the 'special groups' pose the greatest long-term threat to the viability of a democratic Iraq.Translation: The United States is now fighting the proxies of Iran for the future of Iraq. This is a wildy speculative comment by a man not trained - or qualified - to make it. General Patraeus has no crystal ball revealing to him what the long-term threats are to Iraq's supposed, but non-existent, democracy. This supposed democracy is nothing more than an American supported puppet government.
So Bush is going to attack Iran, this time using the story of his toe-the-line general.
Says Pat Buchanan:
The generals testimony is forcing Bush's hand, for consider the question it logically raises: If the Quds Force and Hezbollah, both designated as terrorist organizations, are arming, training and directing "special groups" to "murder" Americans, and rocket and mortar the Green Zone to kill our diplomats, and they now represent the No. 1 threat to a free Iraq, why has Bush failed to neutralize these base camps of terror and aggression?In early 2007, Nancy Pelosi pulled down a resolution that would have denied Bush the authority to attack Iran without congressional approval.
Hence, be not surprised if President Bush appears before the TV cameras, one day soon, to declare:
"My commanding general in Iraq, David Petraeus, has told me that Iran, with the knowledge of President Ahmadinejad, has become a privileged sanctuary for two terrorist organizations – Hezbollah and the Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard – to train, arm and direct terrorist attacks on U.S. and coalition forces, despite repeated promises to halt this murderous practice.
"I have therefore directed U.S. air and naval forces to begin air strikes on these base camps of terror. Our attacks will continue until the Iranian attacks cease."
Because of the failures of this Democratic Congress elected to end the war, Bush can now make a compelling case that he would be acting fully within his authority as commander in chief.
In September of 2007, both Houses passed the Kyl-Lieberman resolution designating the Iranian Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization.
So Bush will launch another one of his planned short, sharp wars, another one of those expected two-week wars like Iraq was supposed to have been, that will most likely embroil us in years more of fruitless and insane conflict with a nation that has not attacked the United States.
But this time, our military is spent, our troops exhausted and worn, our war materials depleted, our equipment worn out and broken, fighting yet another nation that never attacked us.
And Iran has had five years of uninterrupted time to prepare for our attack, an attack we have stupidly warned them of for years.
Prepare yourself mentally. We're in for a real shock this time around.
3 comments:
I resent your characterization of Petraeus as a "bush man".
In as much as every American military officer is "supporting" the Bush administration, you are right. But doing your job does not make you a puppet. Gen Petraeus is a sincere professional military officer who has served well through multiple presidential administrations. Bush is only the latest. I am sure he will also be a valuable member of the next Clinton administration too.
It is not arguable that the government of IRAN is attacking us and killing American citizens. They have been provably doing so for 40 years. The only real questions that you can argue are "how much is enough before we feel the need to do something about it", and "what is the appropriate response". Military invasion is not always the best response.
Iran has been preparing for a war with us for 40 years. If anything, they are in a state of preparedness fatigue. We, on the other hand, despite our broken-ness, have more than enough combat power to destroy them. What we don't have is enough to rebuild them afterwards.
Again, the central argument to be made is, "what is the correct course of action to get what we want: Iranians to stop killing Americans". I suspect, and many people agree with me that we don't need to bomb them back to the stone age (not so far for them) to accomplish that. Nor do we have to occupy them for 30 years with 18 combat brigades and rebuild their armed forces at our expense.
Patraeus was at a career-ending dead-end desk job as commander of Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas, a place where so many unremarkable generals have been sent to quietly fade away. So he once commanded the airborne... big deal.
He jumped at the chance to be Bush's boy in Iraq and get that fourth star.
The Shah of Iran, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, a solid ally of the United States, was Shah until Feb. 11, 1979, or 29 years ago, not 40.
It is the religous fanatics(naturally) in Iran that forced him out and turned Iran against us, not becuase we are Americans, but because we supported the Jewish invaders of an Arab territory labeled Palestine by the League of Nations after WW1. They do not see Israel as a legal state of any kind, only a batch of religious fanatics(what else?) who invaded, occupied and oppressed Arab citizens and lands. They - of course - don't care what you or I think about it.
Want to stop the Iranians from killing Americans? Get them out of Arab lands and stop supporting their millenia-old hated enemy.
We should really follow Geroge Washington's advice about avoid foreign entanglements, especially those with religous underpinnings.
I stand corrected on the math.
I reject the notion that Americans should be restricted to North America in order to not inflame unreasonable people. In my lifetime, I have discovered that unreasonable people really don't need your help to find an excuse for what they want to do.
I also reject the idea that being on good diplomatic terms with one nation automatically makes us everyone else's enemy. Who died and made them the masters of our destiny?
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