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.
#27….there have been increased reports of bombings, and raids by *dissident* groups inside Iran for about a year. The goverment is dominated by Persians and have been oppressing the Arabic minority since the Shah was overthrown, and apparently those areas of Iran have been seeing an increased level of civil disobedience and rioting. So I wouldn’t be surprised if the US or the Saudi’s for us are behind this stuff in some way. Also intersting is to note that the vast majority of the Arabic Iranians are Sunni.
#25 Greg Allen……dude, you need to get laid.
#30…Mr Fusion….your right about tyrants and dissent. But the one thing the Iranians have going for them is the extreamly high literacy rate and the numbers of university educated people. These are the people who opposed the Shah because he was a dictator and an oppressor and supported the take over by the Mullahs. But after 30 years, they find themselves in the same boat as before only with a new oarsman.
The intellectuals had a huge amount of power before the present President, in fact their guy won the Presidency once and was about to win again when this guy came out of no where and suddenly had an overwhelming margin of victory. Sort of like Bush winning in 2004 huh?
The students are also very powerful in Iran as opposed to other Muslim countries, the Mullahs couldn’t rule without them. If I was President(my name is to comlicated to spell), I wouldn’t count on the Army, after all the Shah gave them everything they asked for and they turned on him almost immediatly.
>Iran and Syria won’t support a Hezbolla attack on Israel.
They just finished doing that.
Way to go Fusion.
#35 >>#25 Greg Allen……dude, you need to get laid.
I couldn’t agree more!
#32, And Israel might have won the battle, but they lost the war. When the Israelis indiscriminately killed Lebanese civilians and UN Peace keepers, they lost a lot of sympathy. Hezbollah won’t try to overtly ruin the good will they have gained. At least not until they can make Israel look very foolish, belligerent, monstrous, and / or illegitimate again.