FIRE WITH FIRE

During their recent Camp David summit, US President Bush and Afghan President Hamid Karzai seemed in tune about everything except Iran's future role in Afghanistan. Their vastly different opinions about Iran struck a glaringly discordant note that may disrupt future harmony between the two nations.

Karzai characterized Afghanistan's powerful neighbor as "a helper and a solution."

Bush disagreed, saying, "I would be very cautious about whether the Iranian influence in Afghanistan is a positive force."

Bush and the US believe Iran to be a destabilizing force in the Middle East, bent on achieving its own expansionist goals to reestablish a Persian empire. Barely a week after the summit, US military commanders in Iraq accused Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps of operating in that war-torn country. While no member of the elite Iranian military unit had been captured, weapons caches bearing Iranian markings were found during a military sweep south of Baghdad. US commanders cited "military intelligence" in naming the Guard Corps as the source of the weapons.

Bush and US military leaders have repeatedly accused Iran of supplying weapons to Iraqi insurgents loyal to anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Several times Iranian-marked weapons have been discovered during US clashes with al-Sadr's Mahdi Army. The US has also accused Iran of actively supporting Shiite attacks against Sunnis in Iraq. The only Shiite Muslim state in the Middle East, Iran has made no secret of its support for development of a Shiite-controlled state in Iraq.

Labels: Afghanistan, arms traffic, Iran, Iraq, President Bush, US

Posted by The Watcher at Saturday, August 18, 2007 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Iran is flexing its biceps. Joining with the leaders of Russia and China, Tehran warned the US that interference in central Asia would not be tolerated. The three Asian powerhouses issued a statement that central Asia should be left alone to manage its own affairs:

"Stability and security in central Asia are best ensured primarily through efforts taken by the nations of the region on the basis of the existing regional associations."

Issued at a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the thinly veiled threat appeared to be directed at the US. Although he did not specifically name the US, Russian President Vladimir Puttin took an oblique swing at American involvement in Iraq, saying "any attempts to solve global and regional problems unilaterally are hopeless."

The stability of strategic, resource-rich central Asia has been of concern in western quarters. Iran has increasingly aligned itself with Russia and China against the US. Is Iran lining up allies before it makes its own play on Iraq?

Labels: Iran, Iraq, US

Posted by The Watcher at Thursday, August 16, 2007 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

No wonder the Iraqi government is failing. As fast as citizens step up to the plate, al-Qaida strikes them out -- permanently!

An Iraqi oil minister was kidnapped today by terrorists. (Click here to read the story.) Two more Sunni leaders were killed this week for taking a public stand against al-Qaida. A southern governor and police chief were killed by a roadside bomb. All this in just two days! There are continuing reports of Iraqi political leaders being killed, police recruits mowed down, police barracks bombed, Iraqi soldiers targeted.

Al-Qaida, Shiite and Sunni insurgents and other terrorist groups operating in Iraq have found an effective way to maintain chaos. Every time Iraq begins to grow the head of leadership, they lop it off, leaving the limbs of the beast to flail away ineffectively. Messy but highly effective. No wonder the Iraqi government is in such disarray. Volunteering to serve is tantamount to a death wish.

Labels: al-Qaida, bomb, dissidents, hostages, Iraq, Sunni, violence

Posted by The Watcher at Tuesday, August 14, 2007 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

The accusations are flying hot and heavy between the US and Iran. Yesterday President Bush warned Iran to stop meddling in Iraq. Today Iran told Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki that only a US pullout will stabilize Iraq.

Patting the poor boy on the head, Iran assured the Iraqi PM that big brother Iran will take care of him and is doing everything possible to bring peace to his war-torn country. If that bully President Bush and his nasty US military gang will just get out and go home, everything will be fine.

What a nice family picture. Makes your heart soar to see such love between brothers. It's time President Bush realizes that you can't buy love. Iraq will never be grateful for the millions of dollars and thousands of lives the US has invested in Iraq. We forced our way in uninvited and plunged their country into chaos (a view shared by many Americans). We will always be the bully, the outsider. We will never be part of the family. Americans, our culture, our view of the world are just too different. Iraq will never see the monster slithering slowly through its sands, quietly wrapping its tentacles around every aspect of Iraqi life until the day it snuffs that life out.

Iran is familiar, the Shiite big brother who would never harm his smaller sibling. The US will always be the hated foreign interloper, the infidel. Arabs are notorious for failing to learn from the lessons of history. Iraq will find that the price is high.

Labels: foreign policy, Iran, Iraq, US

Posted by The Watcher at Saturday, August 11, 2007 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

President Bush warned off Iran -- again. At a news conference the President again charged Iran with training and arming Iraqi insurgents bent on killing US soldiers. He, again, threatened nebulous "consequences" if Iran does not cease and desist immediately.

Though the news media is treating this as news, it is not. We've heard this song and dance routine before. The US accuses. Iran hotly denies. The US threatens. Iran blusters. The cycle repeats. It's an international pas de deux in which both dancers are out of step.

How many times will US forces have to find active Quds units (Iranian special forces) operating in Iraq before we do something to stop it? Obviously political chit chat isn't going to solve the problem. Iran has shown time and again that it will say anything to appease international censure, then go blithely on its way and do whatever it wants to. And what it wants to do is reestablish the Persian empire in all its glory and might with Iran at the helm. Iraq is the first stepping stone toward the realization of future Iranian might; Afghanistan, the second.

If Iran truly sought peace in the Middle East, it would back its high level meeting palaver with action. Instead of arming Shiites and setting them against Sunnis and US soldiers, Iran would be leading them to the bargaining table, bringing its considerable pressure to bear to force Iraqis to peace. How can America fail to notice that this is not what Iran is doing. Iran continues to foment rebellion in Iraq.

Iran actively encourages attacks against Sunnis and Americans because Iran wants peace in Iraq to fail. Iran is making every effort to force Iraq further into civil war. Only when Iraq is in total chaos (and it doesn't seem like that will take long), can Iran race in, the conquering hero, and restore peace in the guise of protecting its own borders and helping its neighbor. Unfortunately for Iraq and the rest of the Middle East, Iran seems to define peace like Saddam Hussein, not George Bush.

Labels: dissidents, foreign policy, Iran, Iraq

Posted by The Watcher at Friday, August 10, 2007 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Is US intelligence a joke or are Bush and his cronies really that obtuse? Two headlines caught my eye this week:

Labels: dissidents, foreign policy, Iraq, Kurds, President Bush, Shiite, Sunni

Posted by The Watcher at Thursday, August 02, 2007 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

Today Iran convicted two Kurdish journalists of crimes against Islam and the state and sentenced them to death. Click here to read the full story.

The two journalists were convicted of moharebeh, Arabic for fighting, according to judiciary spokesman Ali Reza Jamshidi. In Iran the term is used to describe major crimes against Islam and the state. The men's crimes and details about how their sentences will be carried out have not been disclosed. However, the journalists were arrested as activists during the 2005 Kurdish protests in Sanandaj, the capital of Kurdistan, an Iranian province on the Iran-Iraq border.

Despite Tehran's constant pressure on journalists and news media to tow the party line, imprisonment and conviction, much less a death sentence, are rare. Tehran likes to flaunt its tolerance and freedom of speech to the outside world, even if the reality inside its borders is more myth than fact.

Analysts wonder if the incident signals the beginning of a new crackdown against rebellious Kurds inside Iran. The Kurds, whose domain straddles Iran, Iraq and Turkey, have long sought autonomy and national unity. Concerned Turks are massing military units along Turkey's Kurdish border with Iraq. While Turkey says its goal is to prevent Kurdish rebels from slipping across Iraqi borders into Turkey, some analysts believe Turkey is positioning itself to invade Iraq and solve its problem with the Kurds by subjugating them under iron Turkish rule.

Whatever the truth, the killing of Kurdish journalists for nebulous political crimes is sure to fan the flames of Kurdish rebellion.

Labels: Iran, Iran judiciary, Iraq, Islam, journalists, Kurdistan, Kurds, Turkey

Posted by The Watcher at Tuesday, July 31, 2007 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

The US intelligence community says al-Qaida has rebuilt its operating capability to pre-9/11 strength. It would seem that two wars and an international manhunt targeting its leadership have come to naught. Despite the capture or death of many top lieutenants, annihilation of training camps, derailing of known funding operations, and the interrogation and incarceration of thousands of suspected sympathizers worldwide, in just six years the shadowy group has managed to rebuild its leadership, manpower, training program, resources, communications network and operations -- all contributing to an attack capability that is at minimum equal to that of 9/11 and most probably greater. Click here to read the whole story.

The recently aborted attacks in the United Kingdom are a sample of al-Qaida's present capability to coordinate chaos in the West, warn U.S. intelligence agencies. Al-Qaida's strength has grown tremendously, particularly in the past two years, and along with it, the terrorist group's capacity to carry out another devastating terrorist attack on American soil, say intelligence sources.

A new terrorist assessment singles out Pakistan for harboring al-Qaida operatives and operations along its border with Afghanistan and as a likely conduit enabling terrorists to enter other countries. Among those countries whose ties to Pakistan may put them at greater risk are Britain, Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands.

Al-Qaida's efforts to step up operations have been particularly successful since Pakistan signed a peace agreement with tribal leaders along its northwestern border with Afghanistan, effectively removing any military presence. The area has become a recognized safe haven for Taliban and al-Qaida operatives.

President Bush is using the intelligence report to bolster his argument for a troop build up. Certainly Americans are more wary of a 9/11-like terrorist threat since the the recent incidents in the United Kingdom.

Labels: Afghanistan, al-Qaida, Iraq

Posted by The Watcher at Tuesday, July 17, 2007 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

• President Bush keeps saying we just need to give his plan more time to work in Iraq.
• The US military says Iraqis are not stepping up to the plate. Increasingly US troops are fighting alone. Allah alone knows where their Iraqi counterparts are hiding.
• Increasingly, Iraqis are turning on themselves. Suicide bombers recently killed 115 Iraqi citizens while they were doing their daily shopping. These weren't political or military targets; just plain old folks trying to survive.
• This week Iraqi politicians called upon Iraqi citizens to arm themselves for their own protection.

I can't believe he hasn't noticed, but unless hell freezes over soon, President Bush's plan doesn't have a prayer of working. The military knows it's not working. Iraqi terrorist and extremists are doing their best to keep it from working. Iraqi citizens have given up. And now Iraqi politicians have thrown in the towel. Even the protesters who gather in front of my local Starbucks every Saturday know Bush's plan is bunk. They still carry signs that say Honk if you support our troops, but the pro-Bush contingent has stopped coming. Only the Down with Bush group still rallies.

Is our president deaf, blind and dumb that he can't see what the rest of the world so clearly sees? Nothing the US does seems to be working in Iraq. Our frustrated military secures one section of the country and the terrorists and extremists pop up somewhere else. Iraq is split in its own thinly veiled civil war, the power struggle between Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds rending the country. The Iraqi military is afraid to fight neighbor against neighbor for fear of retaliation. Iraqi clerics preach hate in the name of Allah while solidifying their power. Iraqi politicians have proved a spineless bunch who would rather feather their own nests than help their countrymen. American citizens (and those of our allies) are fed up and want out NOW.

Perhaps there is too great a cultural divide between Iraq and the US. Perhaps after years of servitude to tribal elders and fanatical clerics, then to a megalomaniac dictator, democracy is a too difficult a concept for Iraqis to grasp. Perhaps Iraqis can only put their differences aside and pull together under the heel of a strong leader. If that's true, the solution to Iraq's problems lies poised on her borders. Iran and Turkey wait there, eager to fill Saddam's shoes.

Labels: foreign policy, Iraq, military, President Bush, suicide bombers, terrorists, war protestors

Posted by The Watcher at Tuesday, July 10, 2007 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

I think things have reached an absurd point in Iraq. I read in the Los Angeles Times today that according to recently obtained State and Defense Department figures:

"The number of U.S.-paid private contractors in Iraq now exceeds that of American combat troops ... More than 180,000 civilians -- including Americans, foreigners and Iraqis -- are working in Iraq under U.S. contracts ... Including the recent troop surge, 160,000 soldiers and a few thousand civilian government employees are stationed in Iraq." Click here to read the whole story.

That is absolutely ridiculous. We are supporting the equivalent of two armies in Iraq! The problem is that we aren't supporting as many of the guys with the guns as we are the guys with the shovels. What kind of twisted logic is that? And you can bet the guys with the shovels are better equipped and better paid than the guys with the guns who are protecting them.

I think it's time we cut our loses. Instead of taking more civilian soldiers away from their families and communities, we should give the contractors guns and tanks, turn the whole mess over to Haliburton, and let them all fend for themselves. Perhaps the wily greed of American capitalism will succeed where military might has failed!

Labels: contractors, Iraq, troops

Posted by The Watcher at Thursday, July 05, 2007 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post

"TEHRAN, May 16 (Reuters) - Iran's highest authority, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said on Wednesday the Islamic Republic would hold talks with the United States about Iraq to remind Washington of its duty to provide security there."

Well if this isn't the pot calling the kettle black? The US would not be having the security problems in Iraq that it is now if Iran was not actively funding and providing materiel to insurgence in Iraq!

You can read the full article here from Reuters. Then Khamenei went a step further and called the American government arrogant in nearly the same breath. Yes we have some challenges in Iraq, but adding fuel to the fire never leads to a diplomatic resolution.

Labels: Iraq

Posted by The Watcher at Wednesday, May 16, 2007 | Permalink | Comments | links to this post