WASHINGTON - The U.S. suspects Iran is providing weapons and other military support to both sides of the sectarian conflict in Iraq — not just to the Shiites who have historic ties to the Iranians, the No. 2 American commander in Iraq said Friday.
"We're working now to determine whether they are in fact not only providing support to Shiite groups, but also Sunni insurgent groups," said Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno, referring to the Quds force, an elite unit of Iran's Revolutionary Guards.
Odierno spoke to reporters at the Pentagon from his headquarters outside Baghdad.
"We don't have any specific proof of that yet, but there's been some indications that that could in fact be the case," he added in a question-and-answer session via satellite video. He did not get more specific about such support.
Odierno was asked why Iran would help the Sunni extremists of Iraq, since both Iran and Iraq are predominantly Shiite.
"I think it's mainly because they want to continue to create chaos in Iraq," he replied. "They do not want this government potentially to succeed. But additionally, I think they want to try to tie down coalition forces here. And it's clear that they are attempting to affect what's going on inside of Iraq on a daily basis."
Probably for the same reasons that, during the Iraq-Iran war in the '80s, we sold weapons to Saddam Hussein and traded arms to the Iranians for hostages. Perhpas you heard about that.
Still, it's something that, even though Gen. Odierno admits that these assertions cannot be proven, he decided to attest to it anyway, the Pentagon saw fit to get the media involved in the PR campaign, and the media were happy just to be asked to the party. It would be little short of astonishing if Iran were aiding and abetting Sunni insurgents. Not only do these people absolutely detest each other, there's not much reason for Iran to waste the effort. If they want to push a proxy campaign to dominate Iraq -- and obviously they do -- why not just redouble their efforts to empower the Shi'a militias, which is probably exactly what they're doing? Any Quds weapons falling into Sunni hands -- and this is just a reasonable guess; I'm not an expert on the area, but some things are just common sense -- are probably Shi'a militias making some money on the side.
The point is, there are plenty of explanations which make more sense than "Iran is backing Sunni insurgents". Besides, the day after we leave, the Shi'a are going to exterminate every Sunni in the country anyway. Problem solved, right?
Odierno also said it was too early to say how long the United States will maintain the higher troop levels in Iraq that President Bush ordered in January as part of his revamped strategy for stabilizing the country. Odierno said he would make his initial recommendation in July or August.
Once again, successmanship is just one more Friedman Unit away. And since the troop-supporting preznit just extended everyone's tours by half an FU, and the current surge which we just had to give a chance has not abated violence, but merely dispersed it, it'll be Groundhog Day again come July or August, whichever is most politically useful for these (and I use the term loosely) people.
2 comments:
Let's see if I got this right.
Iran bad. Iran supply boom-boom to Shi'a militias. Shi'a militias also bad. The only solution is political, not military; so, of course, Cheney sends more troops. Iraqi gummint must be part of political solution, the only solution there is. Iraqi political power rests mainly in those who were exiled in Iran. Those Iraqis rely on Shi'a militias to maintain their power. The leader of the largest Shi'a militia has called on his people to fight the foreign occupiers, of which Dick "Dick" Cheney has ensured there will be an ample supply by sending more troops to assuage a population which doesn't want us there.
And the big worry is that Iran may be selling boom-boom to people who are not only ancient enemies but an impediment to Iran's certain influence in oil-rich southern Iraq.
OK. It's all clear now.
Yeah, exactly. I mean, I think we can all see the logic in Iran possibly -- probably -- providing support and even training to Mahdi Army squads. That makes sense, even if the Cheney administration's approach to addressing the situation does not.
But there's no reason whatsoever for Iran to help Sunni insurgents in any way, shape, or form. That simply does not compute. The only possibility that makes sense, as I said, is that someone's making a little on the side, somewhere down the food chain. Past the sectarian bullshit, all these guys are is gangstas, and gangstas are about business opportunities.
It's just galling though, that our point man in the area uses this contrived episode as an opportunity to control the spin on the news cycle momentarily. It takes King Kong-sized balls to even try to pull that sort of bullshit off, but they went for it, and the media monkeys dutifully stenographed the entire sordid thing. Pathetic.
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