Saturday February 10, 2007

Intelligence agencies indicate that a Mideast country, part of the Axis of Evil, is plotting attacks against us and aiding terrorists. It’s not 2002 Iraq. It’s 2007 Iran:

WASHINGTON, Feb. 9 — The most lethal weapon directed against American troops in Iraq is an explosive-packed cylinder that United States intelligence asserts is being supplied by Iran.

The assertion of an Iranian role in supplying the device to Shiite militias reflects broad agreement among American intelligence agencies, although officials acknowledge that the picture is not entirely complete.

In interviews, civilian and military officials from a broad range of government agencies provided specific details to support what until now has been a more generally worded claim, in a new National Intelligence Estimate, that Iran is providing “lethal support” to Shiite militants in Iraq….

Any assertion of an Iranian contribution to attacks on Americans in Iraq is both politically and diplomatically volatile. The officials said they were willing to discuss the issue to respond to what they described as an increasingly worrisome threat to American forces in Iraq, and were not trying to lay the basis for an American attack on Iran.

The assessment was described in interviews over the past several weeks with American officials, including some whose agencies have previously been skeptical about the significance of Iran’s role in Iraq. Administration officials said they recognized that intelligence failures related to prewar American claims about Iraq’s weapons arsenal could make critics skeptical about the American claims.

The link that American intelligence has drawn to Iran is based on a number of factors, including an analysis of captured devices, examination of debris after attacks, and intelligence on training of Shiite militants in Iran and in Iraq by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and by Hezbollah militants believed to be working at the behest of Tehran.

The Bush administration is expected to make public this weekend some of what intelligence agencies regard as an increasing body of evidence pointing to an Iranian link, including information gleaned from Iranians and Iraqis captured in recent American raids on an Iranian office in Erbil and another site in Baghdad.

So this looks fun. Based on Bush’s rhetoric, if he really believes that Iraq is the central front in the Global War on an Abstract Noun, then it’s hard to see how he leaves office without sending an armada of bombers over Tehran. (If he doesn’t believe that, then … [expletives deleted].) At this point, how are we to believe anything that they say? They’re the boy who cried wolf at this point. Thing is, Iran really is a serious regional threat, as Ahmadinejad would have no particular qualms with nuking Tel Aviv (as he believes that it is his duty to bring about Armageddon to secure the return of the 12th Imam, the Messiah of Shi’a Islam), but we can’t possibly confront them militarily without a war that would make Iraq look like a tea party. Brilliant!

The world is going to get a lot worse. Buckle your seat belts.