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Iran’s presence in Iraq prompts talk of retaliation
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WASHINGTON (Map, News) - Iran’s military intervention in Iraq has intensified since the U.S. began holding diplomatic talks with Tehran, prompting a leading Democratic hawk to urge the Bush administration to consider military strikes.
“The fanatical regime in Tehran has concluded that it can use proxies to strike at us and our friends in Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon and Palestine without fear of retaliation,” wrote Sen. Joseph Lieberman, Conn., in an editorial Friday in The Wall Street Journal. “It is time to restore that fear, and to inject greater doubt into the decision-making of Iranian leaders about the risks they are now running.”
The White House, pressed by Congress to withdraw troops from Iraq, has all but taken the military option off the table for dealing with Iran. It says it is committed to a diplomatic course and United Nations-approved economic sanctions to force Tehran to change its behavior.
The U.S. has held at least two face-to-face talks with Iranians in Baghdad. After discussions with his Iranian counterpart in May, U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker told reporters, “This is about actions, not just principles, and I laid out to the Iranians direct, specific concerns about their behavior in Iraq and their support for militias that are fighting Iraqi and coalition forces.”
But military analysts and officials see no improvement.
“Yes, it’s gotten worse,” said retired Army Lt. Col. Robert Maginnis, a military analyst. “Iran has concluded that it will play a long-term prominent role in Iraq.”
“There does not seem to be any follow-through on the commitment that Iran has made to work with Iraq in addressing the destabilizing security issues,” said Brig. Gen. Kevin Bergner, a spokesman in Baghdad.
Bergner last week released details on how Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Qods Force is arming and training Shiite militants at camps inside Iran. He talked of “secret cells” of Shiites “who are destabilizing the security situation in Iraq” at the behest of the Qods Force, which reports to Iran’s ruling mullahs.
It was this new assessment that prompted Lieberman to press the White House. “The threat posed by Iran to our soldiers’ lives ... is a truth that cannot be wished or waved away,” he said. “It must be confronted head-on.”
Michael Ledeen, an analyst at the American Enterprise Institute, said, “For several years, the intelligence community was reluctant to accept the evidence of Iran’s massive involvement in Iraq, but military commanders have finally brought it front and center.”
rscarborough@dcexaminer.com
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Examiner Reader said:
i am no big fan of g.w bush but the mess this country is in can not all fall at his door congress played right in there to, a president can only go as far as congress goes along with,to me the whole bunch are do nothings and the very little they have done has been garbage and has been for years clinton was no peach eaither he sighned nafta on his way out so guess whos lap that big flop landed in, between it and billions of dollars poured out into two countries for two wars and then the china free trade agreement,there is no wonder our ecomoney is shot.
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Examiner Reader said:
one well placed nuclear bomb would stop iran for good they need to keep thinking the usa dont have the means to stop them if it needs to thats there crazieness
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Examiner Reader said:
We are SO TIRED of your scare tactics. You need to go play war somewhere else and not with the lives and hard-earned tax dollars of Americans!!!!
178 agree | 173 disagree
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John Yao said:
I trust nothing that comes out of the mouth of our "beloved" president Bush. He is the biggest idiot to ever hold the post of the presidency. Just like a lot of great empires throughout human kind, Bush will one day represent the turning point of which the USA will start going down as a world power nation.
247 agree | 210 disagree
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Edgar from Miami,Florida said:
Bush seems to love to spend money on "His War", but has yet spent much money on the victims of Katrina and the forest fires of California
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Examiner Reader said:
It is always easy to screw those who were stupid enough to work for us such as Saddam . We are so damned blind enough to realize too late that the real enemy is IRAN. It is also true that we, the US killed Saddam by Iraqui proxy. Without our invasion, Saddam is still in power and is an antidote for Iran .
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middleclass2008 said:
Don't worry, the war with Iran will happen soon enough. And THE DRAFT will come back too. Bush has only another year and a half left to wreak havoc on the world. That's plenty of time to find a way. We need to stop him, and then show our leaders what we really think of them... PUT THEM ALL BEHIND BARS... where they belong. Google "middleclass2008" to find an Independent Presidential Candidate who will do just that!
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Examiner Reader said:
I find it no surprise that a Jewish senator, well lobbied by AIPAC, would want the USA to fight another war on behalf of Israel. The only threat Iran will be in that region is to Israel alone. There are no threats to our country. After all, is Iran more fanatic that Pakistan? Shame on our American senators taking our country to war for the sake of preserving Israel, a country that constantly spies on us and when it doesn't get its way openly criticizes us. Ray B.
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