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Jay McDonough
Progressive Politics ExaminerJay began writing politically themed commentary and founded his blog, Swimming Freestyle, in October 2007. Here he'll write about politics from a progressive perspective.
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Progressive Politics Examiner
Means To An End
Jay McDonough - Progressive Politics Examiner
The Bush Administration has been working overtime at convincing Americans Iran is our greatest threat. For a while it was all about Iran's program to build nuclear weapons. Then the National Intelligence Estimate refuted that, declaring Iran had abandoned a nuclear development several years prior.At that point we began to hear Iran was providing munitions to Iraqi militias that were, in turn, using them kill and wound American forces. Now, I know what you're thinking; the U.S. sells lots of munitions around the world, but that doesn't make us responsible for how they're used. But given that Iran is next door neighbors with Iraq and has a great interest in the course Iraq takes, it's a fair assumption Iranian arms sales to Iraq may be more than just a simple transaction.
It's reasonable, given the Administration's history, that there's a fair bit of skepticism on the media's part about Bush Administration claims of Iranian involvement in Iraq. The American military promised to provide proof that these munitions were, indeed, from Iran.
From the LA Times:
There was something interesting missing from Maj. Gen. Kevin Bergner's introductory remarks to journalists at his regular news briefing in Baghdad on Wednesday: the word "Iran," or any form of it. It was especially striking as Bergner, the U.S. military spokesman here, announced the extraordinary list of weapons and munitions that have been uncovered in recent weeks since fighting erupted between Iraqi and U.S. security forces and Shiite militiamen.
Not once did Bergner point the finger at Iran for any of these weapons and munitions, which is a striking change from just a couple of weeks ago when U.S. military officials here and at the Pentagon were saying that caches found in Basra in particular had revealed Iranian-made arms manufactured as recently as this year. They say the majority of rockets being fired at U.S. bases, including Baghdad's Green Zone, are launched by militiamen receiving training, arms and other aid from Iran.
A plan to show some alleged Iranian-supplied explosives to journalists last week in Karbala and then destroy them was canceled after the United States realized none of them was from Iran. A U.S. military spokesman attributed the confusion to a misunderstanding that emerged after an Iraqi Army general in Karbala erroneously reported the items were of Iranian origin.
When U.S. explosives experts went to investigate, they discovered they were not Iranian after all.I doubt anyone believes that Iran is completely innocent here. But given the Bush Administration's proclivity for selecting only data that supports their claims, some skepticism is more than warranted and they're sure not doing themselves any favors by pulling this kind of nonsense.
Topics: Iran , Iraq , Weapons
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