Ed has a good post up about Iran and – what seems to be – its reaction to the report of the Iraq Study Group. His conclusion:
The Iranians analyzed the Iraq Security Group report most accurately; it’s obviously a proposal for withdrawal and failure. Teheran would love to see this happen, but now sense that they can name their price to help us comprehend our utter defeat against radical Islamists. As long as we’re willing to let them build nuclear weapons, they’ll let us lose … and again, that won’t be the only concession for their ‘cooperation’.
How else should the Iranians view the ISG report? They understand that they have conducted a low-level war against the US since 1979. Their proxies killed over 240 Marines in Lebanon and kidnapped Americans and other Westerners in Beirut, murdered our CIA station chief in the same period — and the “realists” ended that phase of the war by selling Iran weapons and badly-needed spare parts. Now they have put more effort into killing American soldiers in Iraq by supplying and training their Shi’ite proxies, like Moqtada al-Sadr and his Mahdi Army — and the “realists” want to have Iran take part in determining the future of Iraq.
How many more victories do we want to hand the mullahs? And what new kind of war will the Iranians have to dream up next before we finally understand the reality of their constant war against the US?
I would like to add that Iran is not just in a constant state of war against the U.S., their war is aimed towards the entire West (except for France of course). The U.S. should not be forced to deal with Iran by itself. Europe and the United States should be united on this issue. European countries have, for far too long, forced the U.S. to take the lead in just about everything. The U.S. is the only ‘real’ superpower, but if the E.U. uses its own power effectively, the E.U. is a quasi-superpower itself and as such, capable of dealing with extremist regimes like that of Iran.
European leaders are too eager to call on the U.S. to deal with major problems and – when the U.S. actually does something about it – to criticize the U.S. for just about everything. It’s time for the E.U. to use its power and influence.
Iran is supporting terrorists worldwide, one of its proxies started a war recently against Israel, other Iran-sponsored militias are killing hundreds and even thousands of Iraqis…
P.S.
Note that I am not necessarily saying that Europe and the U.S. should go to war against Iran. I do believe that they should carry out limited airstrikes against nuclear facilities and they should work together as to harm the economic/financial situation of the Mullahs. Besides that, of course, they should support democratic movements in Iran with more money and materials they need and both should try to work very closely together with certain Sunni countries as to limit Iran’s influence/power in the region (think of Turkey).
Lastly, Israel should be given full support if Hizbullah attacks it again.
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