Blips on the Screen: 4 Mar 08

Sooner rather than later

Iran must be confronted

So Ahmadinejad thumbs his nose at the world and continues down the road to Armageddon. Despite these latest and tougher UN sanctions, and near-unanimous international condemnation, Iran is fast becoming the single most dangerous threat to world peace. However, rather than showing any signs of toning down his inflammatory rhetoric, Ahmadinejad just ratchets it up another notch and calls our collective bluff. Not only are we confronted with the looming specter of a soon-to-be nuclear armed terror state, but the mounting evidence has now become irrefutable that Iran has been actively involved in attempting to destabilize and weaken the fledgling democracy in Iraq. Furthermore, it has been proven beyond any shadow of a doubt that Iran has been funneling sophisticated weaponry into that country, which has been shown to have been directly responsible for the deaths and maiming of innumerable US soldiers and their Iraqi brothers-in-arms. Additionally, they are responsible for funding terrorist groups not only in Iraq and in Gaza, but throughout the Middle East.

What more must they do before we respond in earnest?

Rather than making yet another WWII analogy, equating Ahmadinejad's escalating and maniacal maneuvers to that of Adolf Hitler's naked aggressions of the 1930s, let us just agree on this: Diplomacy is not working. It didn't work then, and it's not going to work now.

Can there be any serious doubt as to what has to be done? How much longer can we afford to procrastinate before the inevitable showdown? Is there any question that confrontation -- military confrontation -- is the only thing that will stop this madman, and the mad mullahs who are pulling his strings. Was there some other way that we could have stopped Hitler? Can we continue comforting ourselves with the delusional rationalization that the fear of Armageddon in any way deters these apocalyptic maniacs?

Surely, even the most Bush-hating pacifistic liberal must admit to this imminent threat and our lack of viable options. Surely, here at least, unlike that highly -- and mostly retrospective -- controversy over our admittedly unpopular war in Iraq, our country will forget its bitter partisan politics and, as we have done before, pull together in the face of this common peril. Surely, when the time comes -- and it is rapidly approaching -- we will gather 'round the flag and support our country's right to defend itself against our enemies.

Surely, one half of this great nation of ours has not become so cynical and so distrustful of the motives of their own government that they will once again accuse our elected leaders of lying to us just to get us into another war for their own evil purposes. Surely, they will not take to the streets once again in loud dissent, and march under those resurrected placards, accusing our wonderful nation of bullying Imperialism, or calling our courageous soldiers rapists and murderers. Surely, this time, in the face of this growing and undeniably ominous threat to our very existence we will not turn against each other and tear ourselves apart.

We haven't gone that far yet --
have we?

Suggested reading for those who still have doubts:

Iran may be biggest threat to Iraq: U.S. general
Cross posted from Reuters:
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSN0450503120080304?pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=0

By Andrew Gray

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Iran may pose the greatest long-term threat to Iraq's stability, a U.S. general said on Tuesday, the day after Iran's president wrapped up a visit to Baghdad.

Army Lt. Gen Ray Odierno, who recently ended a 15-month assignment as the No. 2 U.S. commander in Iraq, said Iran continued to train extremist militia groups in Iraq.

Odierno also said he was not surprised Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was able to move around without security problems during his two-dayvisit to Baghdad as the groups that often target high-profile visitors are Iranian-backed.

"Over the last 12 months, every time a visitor would come from the United States, we'd either foil a rocket attack or the rocket attack happened. And guess what? That's because it was being done by Iranian surrogates," Odierno said.

"And when the government of Iraq holds a meeting, there tends to be rocket attacks. Why's that? Because it's done by Iranian surrogates," he told reporters at the Pentagon.

The U.S. military has repeatedly accused Iran of training, supplying and funding Shi'ite militias in Iraq. Iran has denied the accusations.

Ahmadinejad's visit was the first to Iraq by an Iranian president since the two countries fought an eight-year war in the 1980s in which 1 million people were killed.

Iraq's Shi'ite-led government has sought good relations with Iran, another Shi'ite majority country.

But Odierno said he believed Iran wanted Iraq to have only a weak government.

Despite a substantial drop in violence since last summer, U.S. forces in Iraq still face many challenges, including the threat from Sunni insurgent group al Qaeda in Iraq.

Odierno singled out Iran as a factor of particular concern.

Asked if he saw Iran as the greatest long-term threat to Iraq's stability, he said: "If you ask me what I worry about most, I do. I do worry about that as a long-term threat."

Odierno said he had mentioned Iran in discussions with President George W. Bush at the White House on Monday.

He said the United States had "pretty clear" evidence that Iran was still training Shi'ite "special groups."

He also said U.S. forces in Iraq continued to find many deadly armor-piercing munitions which the U.S. military says come from Iran, but he could not tell whether Iran had slowed the flow of those weapons.

Adm. William Fallon, the top U.S. commander for the Middle East, said the United States expected Iraqi leaders to convey to Ahmadinejad "the necessity of stopping this lethal flow of equipment".

"We are working with our commanders to try to cut off this Iranian influence," Fallon told the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services.

(Additional reporting by Richard Cowan; Editing by Eric Walsh)