While W was speechifying last night, our troops attacked an Iranian government representative’s office in northern Iraq, taking six people into custody.
The raid, as President George W. Bush vowed in a speech to disrupt what he called the “flow of support” from Iran and Syria for insurgent attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq, drew criticism from Iraq’s Kurdish regional government, which called it a violation of its sovereignty and of international immunity laws.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini also condemned the raid — the second such operation in the past month as tensions between Washington and Tehran have mounted.
If we really think Ahmadinejad is a kook with nukes, is it smart to continue to provoke him? Where are we going to find the troops and resources for a war with Iran? Just asking.
Kathy –
“If we really think Ahmadinejad is a kook with nukes, is it smart to continue to provoke him?”
Are you serious? They also caught Iranian military officials in Iraq down by Basra a while back. Ahmadinejad does not need to be provoked, he needs to be stopped before he sends a nuke into Isreal. That quote only illustrates the mindset of tippy toe techniques being used to fight a war that won’t work. Iranians and Syrians have been supporting the attacks on our military for some time and it is about time we do something to cut off the new Ho Chi Minh trail. Avoiding those that want to harm us for the last 20 years is how we ended up in this mess.
Some of the key points that led up to Bush’s speech last night included meeting the number goal for trained military and police. Plus, Gen Petraeus took over the reigns, he is one of the best and brightest with an amazing understanding of the Iraqi situation. The democrats response proved that they will oppose anything GW says and offer no alternative.
Bush is known to poke a badger with a stick. He’s been leaning toward poking Iran and Syria for some time. This week he attacked areas of Somalia. Brace yourself. As long as he’s the prez we’re headed for another World War. And if he keeps this going, he’s going to dump the problem on the next prez…just like Johnson did to Nixon. Now I don’t condone the antics of Nixon, but he did inherit an unwinnable war. So will the next prez. God help us all.
The Neo-cons desperately want America involved in never ending wars in the Middle East. They serve the purpose of destroying Americans freedom at home and consuming all our resources to support the war profiteers.
BL, maybe you can tell me how much of this “Freedom Initiative” is about oil and how much is about Israel. I’d really like to know.
Whatever you call it Del it is ultimately a war of idealogy. Oil or no oil, Isreal or no Isreal, the Islamic wackos will do anything to kill the infidels. So if you liberals want to call it poking a badger with a stick, I would like to point out that the badger was out of its hole and biting on America’s leg before we began poking it. Buzz words like “neo-cons” and the like are easy to use to prop up the anti-Bush, anti-America arguments that claim the war is unwinnable. The only thing making the war unwinnable is the political one-sided barage against American interests and security by misguided liberal democrats that served as useful idiots for Kruschev and the communists during the cold war and now serve the same role for Islamic radicals. I had to laugh as Boxer, Wexler and Kerry claimed to be so supportive of our military and that that is why they don’t want the troop surge. I love how the same democrats love to use poll data to claim America is against the war but ignore any poll of military families and members that state the opposite. Maybe there is a reason the military votes predominately for conservatives and voted that way in almost every election. So Boxer and the like may be able to fool their faithful supporters that they love the military as they shed crocodile tears, but they can’t fool the very people they claim to support.
Thank you, BL. A war of ideology. So, even if the region’s oil were not necessary to our interests, and even if we were not closely allied with the modern nation of Israel, we would still be fighting those whose religion compels them to kill us if they can. To me it seems like identifying the Iraqis (or indeed citizens of any country—Al Qaeda does not respect political boundaries) who hold this particular belief, so that we can then eliminate them, is the biggest obstacle. Also, do we kill the women and children who believe this way? After all, the women can aid and abet the terrorist efforts, or even strap on a bomb and drive the truck themselves–we’ve seen it happen. And even the smallest children will shortly be old enough to carry out terrorist missions themselves. So it only makes sense to get rid of them too—but that looks so bad to those who don’t understand the situation.
Fortunately the Bible, as it always does, provides a blueprint for our actions. In 1 Samuel 15, the prophet relays God’s instructions to Saul as to how he is to deal with the Amalekites: “Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.” In this same way, we must utterly destroy the Islamic fundamentalists.
However, there are Kenite people living among the Amalekites, and Saul tells them, “Go, depart, get you down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them: for ye shewed kindness to all the children of Israel, when they came up out of Egypt.” They obey him, move away from the Amalekites, and save themselves. In the same way, America must provide an escape route for the moderate, peaceful Muslims, before we begin the wholesale destruction of our enemies.
However, Saul then disobeys God. He allows his soldiers to save out the best of the sheep and cattle, in spite of God’s clear instructions to destroy everything. For this reason God rejects Saul as king over Israel. I think this makes it clear what our attitude towards Iraqi oil must be. As you say, this is a war of ideology, a “holy war” if you will. We must not let it degenerate into a grab for Middle East resources.