They want "conflict" with Iran
WaPo - Page A01 - "The Bush administration has authorized the U.S. military to kill or capture Iranian operatives inside Iraq as part of an aggressive new strategy to weaken Tehran's influence across the Middle East and compel it to give up its nuclear program.....
For more than a year, U.S. forces in Iraq have secretly detained dozens of suspected Iranian agents, holding them for three to four days at a time. .....
Though U.S. forces are not known to have used lethal force against any Iranian to date, Bush administration officials have been urging top military commanders to exercise the authority."
And,
Also, a concerted plan by Cheney and Elliot Abrams to lie to the American public to justify their effort.
Later: Did the Iraqis know about this?
For more than a year, U.S. forces in Iraq have secretly detained dozens of suspected Iranian agents, holding them for three to four days at a time. .....
Though U.S. forces are not known to have used lethal force against any Iranian to date, Bush administration officials have been urging top military commanders to exercise the authority."
And,
"This has little to do with Iraq. It's all about pushing Iran's buttons. It is purely political," the official said. The official expressed similar views about other new efforts aimed at Iran, suggesting that the United States is escalating toward an unnecessary conflict to shift attention away from Iraq and to blame Iran for the United States' increasing inability to stanch the violence there.
Also, a concerted plan by Cheney and Elliot Abrams to lie to the American public to justify their effort.
Officials said a group of senior Bush administration officials who regularly attend the highest-level counterterrorism meetings agreed that the conflict (Israel-Lebanon) provided an opening to portray Iran as a nuclear-ambitious link between al-Qaeda, Hezbollah and the death squads in Iraq.
Later: Did the Iraqis know about this?
posted by mikevotes at
10:07 PM
6 Comments:
And the congress will be too spineless to actually DO anything to stop him. If Bush is allowed to provoke an expanding world war in the Middle East, then a pox be upon us all. This time, we have no excuse for trusting the man, and every reason not to.
By
-epm, at 9:23 AM
I wonder how Congress will view this, and a component of tactics over which they have no control, or as an effort to unilaterally declare war?
It certainly won't help the administration on the Senate "surge" vote. Anything that makes Bush's policy less popular is boud to pressure the Republicans.
Mike
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mikevotes, at 11:12 AM
I think the first step is to pass legislation that repeals or redefines the war powers given the president in the 2002 military authorization bill. The administration, as we now know, wanted congress to grant it carte blanche imperial military authority in the entire Islamic world/Middle East. We also know the administration will do whatever it damn well pleases and has contempt for congress.
Stronger than any empty resolutions, I want my congress to make very clear that the President is not authorized to engage in unilateral military escalation.
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-epm, at 11:43 AM
The reauthorization movement is an interesting one to me.
It would certainly serve to put hard restraints on the use and application of force, but does it have enough support in the Senate to really happen?
It'd be tough to structure it loose enough to cover all the positions, but tight enough to have any meaning.
And, would you have Dems splitting off refusing to authorize anything?
Mike
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mikevotes, at 1:40 PM
"Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is defending the U.S.-backed Iraqi government and warns against attempts to undermine it.
Trying to weaken the Iraqi government is tantamount to "treason for the Iraqi people and Islamic nation," Ahmadinejad said in a telephone conversation with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani Wednesday, according to the official Iranian news agency, IRNA." link
Will be fun to see how US admin will spin this to make Ahmadinejad appear more threatening to the US. Or more likely this statement will be ignored as was their earlier proposal to engage the US in meaningful dialog. good times.
By
Matteo Tomasini, at 3:47 PM
So long as the media portrays Ahmadinejad as crazy and doesn't cover what he actually says, the administration has a clear field to paint whatever picture they want, especially with the "do you want America to lose" charge sitting in their back pocket.
I'm trying to treat Iran as a rational self interested actor. Other than the Israel rhetoric which is intended for his domestic audience, he has behaved in a fairly predictable and sane way.
Mike
By
mikevotes, at 4:58 PM
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