I was a little skeptical, when some blog-buddies started worrying that the President had “declare[d] ‘secret war’ against Syria and Iran” in his speech this week. But events may be proving them right, after all.
“A recent series of American raids against Iranians in Iraq was authorized under an order that President Bush decided to issue several months ago to undertake a broad military offensive against Iranian operatives in the country, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told the New York Times
There has been a decision to go after these networks, Ms. Rice said…
Ms. Rice said Mr. Bush had acted after a period of time in which we saw increasing activity among Iranians in Iraq, and increasing lethality in what they were producing. She was referring to what American military officials say is evidence that many of the most sophisticated improvised explosive devices, or I.E.D.s, being used against American troops were made in Iran.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Noah
“the President had “declare[d] ‘secret war’ against Syria and Iran” in his speech this week”
if it is true it is way OVER DUE FOR SUCH. Iran began operations against US the day our forces rolled over Saddam’s boys. Since that point they have been caught either directley or through there proxies like Hezbollah or Sadr running direct ops against our forces. Everything from Hezbo speacialized shaped (facotry manufactured not yo moma’s basement sh*t) to training arming funding Sadr ect…. We are fighting Islamic Radicals both Shia and Sunni stripe. Both have sworn to our death or utter defeat we cannot win without totally absolutley crushing both stripes.
Like I said before “It was all or nothing from day one”. If we don’t choose to go all the way in our time our children will be forced to at a cost that we cannot even imagine today. History will spit on our generation if we punk out in this critical time.
This war has barely even tapped our full war potential, is historically by all counts a unimaginable success but for US to be crying like we are truley it is pitufull and makes one wonder is the enemy right “US is a paper tiger ripe for conquest”? I don’t want to beleive that.
Agree with C-Low here, finally facing up to Iran is long overdue. But I doubt that Bush and Blair actually have the cojones to do it, this is probably just empty bluster and threats.
Indeed, my sense is that we’re going to get the very worst result here– the US will huff and puff, and then meekly back down even as Iran continues to kill American soldiers every day with shaped charges and other support for the insurgents. Then, the terrorists will indeed perceive that the US is little more than a paper tiger, a country that looks tough but can be defeated by a bunch of thugs if they just act mean enough.
And you know what? The terrorists would be exactly right, because the US would indeed be a paper tiger if we just let Iran get away with their intimidation yet again.
This is just like 1938 over all again, with Neville Chamberlain and the appeasers and “peace in our time” echoing throughout the stupid minds of the people in power. The difference being that this time, the appeasers like Chamberlain have the upper hand, and I suspect that they’ll fail to confront Iran until it’s too late. Iran will likely explode a nuke within less than a year, and become the dominant power in the world’s most important region. And the US will leave in humiliation and weakness, shown once again to be all talk and no action.
Don’t let all the domestic irritation with Mahmoud Ahmedinejad fool you– he’s a bit player in this bellicosity, and his removal would do nothing to stop the Iranian threat. In fact, the push to become a nuclear power has been fueled by the mullahs all along, and they’re the ones with the real power. Sad that the USA is too timid to take necessary action.
C-Low and Vilnius – I think you two are vastly overestimating the cost of engaging Iran while we have so many troops invested in Iraq. Sure, we can slap Iran’s hands by raiding training camps, but President Bush needs to very cautious.
I’m afraid that many Americans underestimate how difficult it would be to control escalation of a conflict with Iran. We can probably take control of Iranian airspace and prevent a closure of the Strait or Hormuz, but a land war is going to get really ugly.
The Bush administration needs to be careful about what it wishes for with Iran. We may bit off more than we can handle.
WE MAY HAVE NO OTHER CHOICE THAN TO HIT THESE CAMPS. THEY ARE KILLING U.S. TROOPS WITH IMPUNITY.WHY NOT HIT THEM WHERE THEY TRAIN, EAT, SLEEP? IT MAY LEAD TO 100,000 IRANIANS CROSSING INTO IRAQ, AND THAT IS TROUBLE. THE BRITS ARE DOWN TO 7,000, AND OUR ONLY REAL ALLIES ARE THE KURDS. WE CAN STRIKE, AND PULL BACK, CONSOLIDATE OUR FORCES AND MOVE BRIGADES, HEAVY AND LITE TO PROTECT THE KURDS. YES, DESTROY THOSE CAMPS. KILL ALL INVOLVED WHEREVER THEY ARE.
“checkers not chess” Exactly. This is the chess move we should be making……pulling OUT of Iraq, (sacrificing pawns), and letting the opposition,from whatever sides or factions, occupy and fight over the territory…while we reinforce Saudi Arabia, et. al….the purpose would then be containment (a la East Germany once)..and reliance upon our proven muscle in facing down a regular military threat.
we cannot “win” against internal guerilla warfare, period.
however, we would have to bite the oil bullet in order to carry out this game….and that is what the entire fiasco is about at the moment; our inability and unwillingness to do so.
So I suppose we shouldn’t do anything about the Iranian agents planting bombs in Iraq eh? Just let them do it huh?
They come to Iraq to cause mayhem, they can expect a visit from the 75th Rangers in the middle of the night.
We’ve been fighting Iran and Syria since Day 1. Its not by accident we’ve been in full fledged firefights with uniformed elements of the Syrian military.
I feel more and more like Jack Nicholson every day, I guess most people really can’t handle the truth.
It seems “the genie is out of the bottle” is an expression much in vogue today, so I’d like to remind everyone it popped out long ago. We Americans only realized it on 9/11 and the world has been fundamentally different ever since, and will never be what it was before.