Somebody may be reading too much into things, but given we’re talking about Bush…
Did the President Declare “Secret War” Against Syria and Iran?
Washington intelligence, military and foreign policy circles are abuzz today with speculation that the President, yesterday or in recent days, sent a secret Executive Order to the Secretary of Defense and to the Director of the CIA to launch military operations against Syria and Iran.
The President may have started a new secret, informal war against Syria and Iran without the consent of Congress or any broad discussion with the country.
The bare outlines of that order may have appeared in President Bush’s Address to the Nation last night outlining his new course on Iraq:
“Succeeding in Iraq also requires defending its territorial integrity and stabilizing the region in the face of extremist challenges. This begins with addressing Iran and Syria. These two regimes are allowing terrorists and insurgents to use their territory to move in and out of Iraq. Iran is providing material support for attacks on American troops. We will disrupt the attacks on our forces. We’ll interrupt the flow of support from Iran and Syria. And we will seek out and destroy the networks providing advanced weaponry and training to our enemies in Iraq.”
Adding fuel to the speculation is that U.S. forces today raided an Iranian Consulate in Arbil, Iraq and detained five Iranian staff members. Given that Iran showed little deference to the political sanctity of the US Embassy in Tehran 29 years ago, it would be ironic for Iran to hyperventilate much about the raid.
But what is disconcerting is that some are speculating that Bush has decided to heat up military engagement with Iran and Syria — taking possible action within their borders, not just within Iraq.
Some are suggesting that the Consulate raid may have been designed to try and prompt a military response from Iran — to generate a casus belli for further American action.
One of the commenters on this piece wonders if the idea is to lose in Iraq and then blame Iran, providing a reason for attacking them. And then there’s Condi Rice’s testimony in the Senate. Tiptoeing through facts like a ballerina in a minefield.
I would say Iran has been at war or pseudo-war with the US on and off since 1979. The US has found many Iranian weapons being used in Iraq. It looks like Iraq is already a proxy war with Iran and Syria, and Iran seems to be spoiling for fight. The whole Middle East is a power keg and has been for decades.
Iran had a democratically-elected government in the 1950’s. Courtesy of the US/CIA, that government was overthrown and the Shah put back in place.
Are Americans ignorant enough to believe Iranians have forgotten that? You betcha.
http://www.mohammadmossadegh.com/
Is there a single week that passes without any potential major F-ups on national and international ground since this guy is in office? who is he really listening to at the end? and who benefits from that region in total chaos if these plans go through besides weapon manufacturers worldwide?
#3 You’re right….
He should be listening to Bill Clinton. He solved the Middle East crisis when he……no wait. It was Jimmy Carter. He should listen to Carter because he solved the Middle East crisis when he……oh, never mind.
Besides, most of Carter’s staff quit so he probably too busy to consult with now.
I am an amature at this and have no pretense that I a well informed foreign policy scholar – BUT…..
I recently had lunch with relative who works in the nuclear field… he travels internationally and has “friends” all over the world. When asked about Iran, its nuclear aspirations, and Israel – he immediately stated that “the moment Israel is sure Iran has the bomb – they will strike,”
It took a while for me to grasp this especially in light of our discussions about Israel’s recently revealed nuclear arsenal.
This friend beleives that Israel will perform a pre-emptive strike on Iran unpon Iran’s possession of a nuclear weapon.
Could it be that this would fit will with why America invaded Iraq and eliminated its leadership and basically threw the country into turmoil…
Iraq now could not support Iran in an all out war as I see it. I’m not defending what America did… I am just guessing here.
This stuff is really scary. What if we were to have a “first strike” from Israel… I mean, Iran has made it CLEAR they want Israel destroyed… and wiped from the face of the earth…
Preditions… opinions…. rants?
#4 — “most of Carter’s staff quit” — as accurate at math as most republican dweebs are at foreign policy. 14 left — of a staff of 150.
In what alternate reality does Bush have the army to tackle Iran? He is losing it more and more each day… like Hitler in the bunker in the last days, ordering non-existent German divisions to fend off the attacking Russians…
This friend beleives that Israel will perform a pre-emptive strike on Iran upon Iran’s possession of a nuclear weapon.
So is Bush planning a pre-emptive strike on Iran before it has nukes, to save Israel the bother and to prevent a nuclear war breaking out in the Middle East? After all, Pakistan has nukes and would find it politically difficult to remain neutral in such a nuclear exchange.
# 8 – If America does invade / attack Iran… How can we manage TWO middle eastern countries as a police state… talk about making some enemies!
I am just wondering what everyone here thinks about what moves will be next.
I believe that in the upcoming months, possibly during summertime, Iran will trigger another war between Hezbollah and Israel. Hezbollah is completely funded and supplied by Iran indirectly through Syria. Ahmadinejad will for the second time, try to take the attention off of his nuclear program and ignite another small war between the Shiite militia and Israel. Israel was not properly prepared for last summer’s war, and they found a tough opponent in Hezbollah. I believe this time, they will be prepared, as the IDF has been undergoing major changes.
I sort of agree with #5. Israel may be the first to attack. This will not be good for Israel and the United States, but I believe it will be a necessity. In the 80s Israel destroyed Iraq’s nuclear facility, and I guarantee they are gaining very valuable intel on Iran’s nuclear facilities. I don’t necessary believe that they will wait for confirmation that Iran actually has the bomb. They easily could destroy the nuclear facilities before they actually build the bomb. They will not be able to totally destroy Iran’s facilities, but they will most likely be able to do enough damage to protect their country temporarily.
Either way, there is no telling the state this world, especially the Middle East, will be in 3-5 years, possibly even sooner.
#9 – The next move would be to declare the first inter-galactic empire
#4 – You’re right let’s keep pushing until our currency is no longer traded – Who woke up after the invasion and said ‘What? there are Shia in Iraq?” ooops!
#5 – Israel would be the last country to benefit from chaos around the state,
Sad to say but the truth is we are still in a middle-ages mindset, whoever has the biggest weapons and armies will always be right – It’s human nature – no need to sit down around a table for dialogue.
Where did I put my bottle of Damnitol?
Iran and Syria won’t support a Hezbolla attack on Israel. Right now, Iran has much third world sympathy for its position (though not universal and definitely not with the wacko, right wing nut, neo-con, know nothing crowd) and won’t risk that. Syria has less sympathy but if they keep their nose clean and don’t do anything will gain if they are attacked by Israel or the US.
If the US wants to lose even more credibility around the world, it will continue its aggressive campaign. The US has few friends as it is and even those friends are under intense pressure from internal forces.
Attacking a consulate is not the way to win friends or influence others with your diplomatic abilities. That just opened up ALL American Embassies and Consulates to attack from any quarter. Using the excuse that Iran did the same thing 28 years ago is bull. We claimed we are better then them at the time. We asked and received the whole world’s condemnation of that attack.
Way to go Bush.
#5 – Didnt Israel already perform a preemptive strike against another country over there in the 80’s? I seem to vaguely remember something like that.
To solve this whole crisis in iraq we just need to undo what the British did when they formed the country back in the early 1900’s – aka disolve the country and let each tribe take their third back.
I am with tallwookie on splitting up Iraq…
Fuck. Thats all I got.
13. That just opened up ALL American Embassies and Consulates to attack from any quarter.
Kinda like someone launching a “missile” at the US embassy in Athens, Greece?
http://tinyurl.com/yx6hry
13. That just opened up ALL American Embassies and Consulates to attack from any quarter.
I’m glad no one has attacked American Embassies before now. Like in 1998 in Africa. Oh wait…..
I really, really don’t care if Iran and Syria get nuked, bombed or I really, really don’t care if Iran and Syria get nuked, bombed or devastated to the point that no one or nothing else is left that can live there. What I do care about is that with each escalation, invasion and conflict the number of ‘refugee trash’ that we will be importing to this country will grow.
Each time we get into a conflict we end up with our enemies trash. Philippines, Germany, Korea, Vietnam. Look at the cold war. Today you can’t go two feet without running into some perverted leftist/commie anti-white anti-American NAZI thug masquerading as an intellectual giant. These induah’-viduals are same 60’s & 70’s brain dead people that got the US into our current Globalization mess. I don’t mind them doing their drugs or each other until they die of whatever disease they do catch, but do they have to drag down the country with their perversion? Oh yeah, no one want to go the hell alone.
It’s futile to continue to fight the Muslims, most of the leftist will continue to want to pacify them by giving them their way and the Neocoms will continue to want to buy them off. Neither is going to happen. What we are doing is going to extreme measures to make sure we don’t insult or act in a prejudicial manner against Muslims, thus they continue to win where it counts. You would think the secularist would be against the encroachment of Islam into American society, but quite the reverse. Secularist hate Christians but love anything that isn’t a White European. Since there are so many secularist societies in the Islamic world, you have to wonder what the real agenda is. Are they just stupid, or just not thinking things through? What do they think will happen with abortion, gays and women rights in a Islamic America? They aren’t the most open minded individuals, they simply end the argument by cutting it off at the head.
If you want to end the violence in the Middle East then you have to attack Syria and Iran ( and Egypt, Lebanon, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, France, Germany and anywhere else a Muslim lives), because the threat is a religion that condones, demands and exempts Jihad and the murder of non-Muslims. No-one in west is capable of that, the secularist are but only if they are white Europeans. This is really a waste of time.
Either you should start studying the Koran, this will be the way the so-called anti-religious secularist/communist go, or adjust to being a third class Dhimmi citizen behind the second class Mexican and First Class Muslims.
What will a Spanish speaking Islamic country be like, if you live a few more years you’re find out?
no bitterness in your life huh traaxx???????
I’m a conservative and don’t care for PC crap or Neo-cons either…..but damn, that rant sounded like a David Duke ralley. Dude, your as out of date as the jihadists.
Whoa. Racist rant much, traax?
Dude, the reason it seems like everyone’s against you is that everyone is against you. And the reason that everyone’s against you is that your vision for how things oughta be sucks ass.
This raid on what has been called a **consulate** by the Iranians and the Iraqi Foriegn Ministry, was not a prompt to get a reaction to it from Iran. It was a direct consequence of the arrest about 3 weeks ago of 5 Iranians in central Iraq by the US. The five turned up in a raid of a house that was being watched as an insurgent safe house. 2 ended up having diplomatic immunity and were released, but not before the US captured a truck load of papers, maps, cell phones and computor laptops full of info on Iranian operations inside Iraq. The interesting part was that among the 5 were the Iranian head of security, and the head of Iranian intelligence, the others were Iranian resistence group trainers.
Suddenly, after that raid, we move a battle group off shore to **protect the stait of Homoz**, and this raid of an office that was well known for helping groups travel back and forth between Iran and Iraq.
Whats happening isn’t random…..there appears to be a coordinated US response to information obtained from the 5 Iranians. It isn’t just happenstance that Bush makes an explicit warning to Syria and Iran in his speech and Rice flat out goes for the jugular in hers.
And, Bush made Maliki agree to bringing the shia militia under control in public, so he can no longer scream foul when the US troops go into the shia areas looking for militia and order them to stop and leave the area as in the past. Bush seems to be finally doing what should have been done at least a year ago.
I don’t see a **war** as we know it against Iran or Syria, but I do think that things are about to get a lot warmer for Iran and it’s allies inside Iraq. I see Israel hitting the Iranian nuke sites by the end of summer, there will be the usual wailing and gnashing of teeth by the arab states, but they all will be very pleased it happened in private. Another small story hardly noticed last week was that the Iranian moderates have started speaking up loudly against the hard line goverments nuke policies…..the crack in the solid wall of Iran has appeared and it’s what Bush and Rice and the Saudi’s, the Egyptians and others have been waiting for.
2007 could be interesting to say the least.
Did anyone see that Fox reporter egging on Robert Gates to invade Iran?
One gets the impression Fox is tired of this old war and and wants a fresh, new exciting one to report on.
>>What will a Spanish speaking Islamic country be like, if you live a few more years you’re find out?
Spanish is making in-roads, obviously… but Islam?
Currently, half a percent of Americans are Muslims That’s less than one-third the rate of Christians in Pakistan! (1.5 to 2%) Anyone seriously worried that Pakistan is turning Christian soon?
Irrational xenophobia is no help to America.
Sorry to add one more post, but I just noticed how incredibly phallic that photo is!
I guess the cod-piece statement has worn off, so the Bush handlers had to up the effect.
Iran and Syria have been fighting the US in Iraq since day 1. It’s only recently that certain information about it has become available to the public, and the president has decided to try a Clinton-like maneuver of releasing information slowly so noone will accuse him ofd dishonesty on the subject. This has been known by the US military from the beginning, and Donald Rumsfeld’s plans to go after fighters in those countries were quashed early on.
There’s always rumors about Delta operating in Iran. Given US policy over the last 4 decades, it wouldn’t suprise me if there was quite a bit of military action going on right now in both Syria and Iran.
So Bush wants the high ground? He is opening a real can of worms.
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan on Friday reaffirmed Turkey’s right to send troops into Iraq to crush Kurdish rebels there and chided U.S. officials for questioning it.
Reuters
http://tinyurl.com/y57otz
#25, Greg, I noticed that too but didn’t want to draw attention to myself.
#22- I like the point you make about the hard-line elements in Iran losing their clear mandate that the had about a year or two ago. The situation seems to call for greater covert political actions than covert military actions. If the U.N. sanctions continue to be enforced, the Iran economy will continue to suffer, something that the populous at large will not, and does not, tolerate. Student groups and other liberal thinkers continue to be a thorn in the President’s side and this grievance should be exploited.
. Any type of military action will only strengthen the Iranian President’s rhetoric and reverse and political gains that the dissident groups have made over the past year. During a Senate Committee hearing Roberts Gates and Peter Pace both said that there are no current plans to take military action inside Iran because they feel confidant that the pro-insurgent groups can be dealt with inside Iraq. The data from that recent raid should keep the U.S. military busy for the couple months following up on leads, and potential attacks.
#29,
During a Senate Committee hearing Roberts Gates and Peter Pace both said that there are no current plans to take military action inside Iran because they feel confidant that the pro-insurgent groups can be dealt with inside Iraq
1)It wouldn’t be the first time this administration has lied before Congress.
2)If there were plans to attack Iran or Syria, I don’t think the top Pentagon would let that out of the bag by telling a Committee they were about to attack.
3)Bush has reserved the right to expand the terrorist base by taking the “War on Terror” to where ever he finds it.
4)The extra battery of Patriots and John Stenis Carrier group weren’t sent to the Gulf to fend off insurgent IEDs.
I don’t necessarily disagree with you because I don’t know what is happening in King George’s head. Just offering some food for thought.
Another thought. Most dictatorships care little about dissent, especially students. Aggression by the US against Iran might also gel popular support for the current regime. Which, BTW I don’t believe represent the popular will of the people.