[note: pardon the heavy sarcasm in this piece.]
Some signs from Iraq that the US is starting to back away from provocations and accusations against Iran, now that the Russians seem to be cooperating a bit, and more sanctions have been agreed to; on the other hand, arrests/abductions of Iranian officials are causing tensions.
First, the good news:
First: The USS Ronald Reagan has not been headed toward the Persian Gulf, but rather was involved in exercises with Japanese forces in the Philippine Sea.
Second: When Pentagon NY Times stenographer reporter Michael Gordon parrots writes on Iraq, you can be pretty sure that we are hearing deceptive purposeful propaganda “news.” With a small amount of translating and filling in the blanks, the US intentions can often be discerned. Gordon, you may remember, was a collaborator, back in 2002, with discredited warmonger extraordinaire Judith Miller in the inventive series of articles on Iraqs WMDs. Further, Gordon was the principal handpuppet reporter on the infamous fairy story Powerpoint presentation in Baghdad that blamed Iran for bombs, training, making faces, and everything else evil in Iraq.
Well, Gordon has a breathless piece in the Sunday NY Times telling us that, well, it is looking more like the Sunnis and al Qaeda rather than Iran/Shiites, are, as INCREDIBLE as it may seem (sarcasm added), doing most of the dirty work in Iraq. Of course, the piece makes it seem as though this is a new development, and has only come about because the suddenly capable US has surged the awful but cowardly Shiites into hiding out. By this clever manipulation of Mr. Magoo Gordon, the US turns what was a very large misstatement into a declaration of victory. Yahoo.
… deadly bombings by Sunni Arab militants have emerged as a greater danger. In particular, the threat posed by the Sunni group Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia was underscored when American troops seized a laptop computer from a senior operative in the group who was killed in late December.
Information from captured materials indicates that the group’s leadership sees “the sectarian war for Baghdad as the necessary main focus of its operations,” according to an intelligence report that was described by American officials.
Reflecting concern over the bomb attacks, especially car bombings, American military officials have begun to emphasize that bringing security to the Iraqi capital will involve not only the protection of Baghdad neighborhoods, but also raids to shut down bomb factories and uncover arms caches in the largely Sunni areas on the outskirts of the city.
Evidently the US as gotten whatever “diplomatic” benefit was gonna get out of the demonization and threatening of the Shiites and Iran (and the world, for that matter), and has decided to get back a little closer to the truth. I am guessing that we are seeing the end of the Iran-attack scare tactic, as the US has gotten some cooperation from Russia on increasing UN sanctions.
So what is next US move, what is the motivation for feeding this story to the house reporter, Michael Gordon? Read this and guess what happens next:
Citing concern over the bomb attacks, especially car bombings, American military officials have begun to emphasize that bringing security to the Iraqi capital will involve not only the protection of Baghdad neighborhoods, but also raids to shut down bomb factories and uncover arms caches in the largely Sunni areas on the outskirts of the city. “The Baghdad belts are increasingly seen as the key to security in Baghdad,” Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, the American officer in charge of day-to-day operations in Iraq, said in an e-mail message. “I believe this is where you can stop the accelerants to Baghdad violence.… American military officials said they had long understood that Baghdad could not be secured without also controlling the surrounding suburbs, but the car bombings have made this all the more important.
Seems obvious: widen the surge area, more troops (the surge is now at 30,000 and climbing), more equipment, more money, more commitment, nickel and dime….and then almost certainly, we will see a coup, putting the ex-Baathist Shiite non-sectarian Allawi in charge, with what is euphemistically referred to as martial law (actually, Iraq is very close to martial law already, under the new “surge” rules). Juan Cole reports today of stories that Allawi is continuing to try to gain support:
the ex-Baathist former appointed prime minister of Iraq, conducted talks in Cairo with Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak on Sunday. He expressed his hope that Arab states would push Iraqi interests at the upcoming Riyadh summit. Allawi said that reconciliation in Iraq would require concessions from all parties and joint action for national interests. Mubarak is said to have emphasized the need for Iraqis to prefer their national interests as citizens to their sectarian interests.
And the bad news:
One further note today, the Iranians are expressing outrage at the continuing arrests and abductions of Iranian military officers, apparently part of the US/Israeli “all-fronts” provocation campaign against Iran. The latest is the apparent taking of Gen. Asgari in Turkey by Mossad, described in this Washington Post article. If you read between the lines, the word “defection” is never used. Further, the sources are all anonymous and overseas; that almost always means the US is planting propaganda. The US military really doesn’t like to get caught planting lies in domestic media. Furthermore, from other sources we know that the west also got his family. And if you want to defect to the US, and you are an Iranian general, do you trust yourself to Mossad???????? COME FREAKIN ON. So don’t think that the words “cooperating” or “voluntary” are being used in their usual sense.
At any rate, the media now has the story that Iran is threatening to retaliate against Americans and Israelis. Of course, this is not an official Iranian statement, but rather something in a military publication, for whatever that means. Personally, I think that the US tactic of adopting Israeli methods and allying with them in these kinds of operations will earn for us exactly it has earned for Israel.
I think that tomorrow will the last in this series; it really doesn’t seem that the US is going to strike at Iran at this time; but the truly frightening message persists: that the US can be taken into an unwarranted attack at any moment by an intellectually challenged ex-addict who thinks he gets messages from God and is largely controlled by a small cult of warmongers. And there is nothing that can be done about it, short of a possible unconstitutional act by some officers in our military.
[Previous posts in this series can be found by clicking on the "Countdown..." in the categories list in the far right hand column.]
2 Comments
March 19, 2007 at 9:54 pm
Hey I’m glad you are keeping an eye on the Reagan (don’t forget the Nimitz) but it looks like it’s headed to South Korea for an exercise at the end of this month.
http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/nation/200703/kt2007030619435610510.htm
March 20, 2007 at 5:50 pm
[...] as noted yesterday, I think “fire danger” continues to fall. The Israelis keep up their clamor against Iranian aid to Hamas, but that story has pretty well [...]