Saturday, January 27, 2007

This is interesting

Gateway Pundit has a post up on the mystery Iranian official detained by American forces in Iraq. From the AP:

The U.S. ambassador said Wednesday that one of the Iranians detained by U.S. forces in Iraq during two raids over the past month was the director of operations for Iran's Revolutionary Guard Quds faction, the organization responsible for funding and arming Iraqi militants.

Zalmay Khalilzad said the recent raids were part of a "new strategy" to "go after their networks that are active here."

The United States is building up its troops in the region, beyond the additional 21,500 on their way to Iraq for a new security crackdown, in what U.S. officials say is a message to Iran. Khalilzad sought to reinforce Washington's message that Tehran should keep its hands off Iraq, where it has enormous influence with the majority Shiite population.

...Khalilzad said Iranian agents were working with "a variety of groups, and there are groups that they fund and control, in my judgment, directly."


And Dafydd has an interesting post up as well on the increasing pressure the mullahs are feeling:

3. It's always better, in my opinion, to leave your enemies in a state of FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt) than to let them know what is actually going to happen... even if what is going to happen is an attack. Uncertainty whether you will be attacked is actually more stressful than certain knowledge you will be attacked.

Bush's mebbie-we-will, mebbie-we-won't has got to be nerve-wracking to the mullahs, most of whom are emminently practical about their delusions: they prefer to systematically go about seizing all power in the Middle East (as a stepping stone to, you know, ruling the world; and no, I'm not joking).

Ahmadinejad, by contrast, literally believes that Allah will send the Twelfth Imam and the heavenly host to fight on the side of Iran against America... thus, the greater the foe, the greater the glory! He really does want a war with the United States; I suspect he is "enraptured" by the idea -- and I choose my words with clarity and precision.

The "conservatives" seem unamused by his monkey-like caperings (Ahmadinejad's nickname in Iran is, in fact, "the Monkey"): Either he's mad as a March hatter, in which case Iran would be destroyed to no purpose; or else the supernatural hand of Allah really will reach down from Paradise, in which case we're on the wrong end of the point-spread anyway, and Ahmadinejad's brazen tauntings won't be necessary.

Either way, it's a very, very good play to keep the Iranians off-balance about what we're going to do. Let them stew and suffer.

So bravo to Bush; his cageyness on the quesion of attacking Iran will have far more of an impact on our most dangerous enemies than will the buffoonery of Congress. Which is good, because as foolish as the antics of the Cowards Corps are, that's how brilliant the president's game is.


I have heard a lot of conservatives here say the United States needs to be more confrontational with Iran. I think it just possible that more is going on in regards to Iran than we know.

3 comments:

Syl said...

Chris Matthews has been on a tear since the SOTU saying 'Bush is going to attack Iran! How can we prevent it?'

I doubt the Mullahs watch MSNBC much, though. Wish they did. :)

I do think it's rather telling that the Democrats want to talk tough to our ally (Iraqi government) but talking tough to our enemy (Iran) is a no-no.

As I've said, it's not WHAT we do, it's WHO is doing it that matters to them. If Hillary talked tough to Iran? Wow, what a bold move! If Bush does the same thing? Duck! Stop him!

Syl said...

Hmmmm...since Bush is credible as a threat to our enemies and Democrats are not, I think a Constitutional ammendment of an ammendment is in order.

Eight more years of Bush seems about right to me. :)

(Except for the 'Culture of Life' part which is growing tiresome to me.)

Unknown said...

Syl:

Same here. Can you imagine the heads exploding?

I refuse to watch Chris Matthews. I haven't killed anyone or stolen a car or anything, why should I be punished.