More Bad News: Bomb blasts in Southern Iran

12 Comments

1. 

   Madman in the Marketplace on January 11, 2007 at 9:45 am

   the link went dead, and I can’t find any more about it.

   However, the good folks at the National Review assure us that there is nothing to worry about:

   Succeeding in Iraq also requires defending its territorial integrity and stabilizing the region in the face of extremist challenges. This begins with addressing Iran and Syria. These two regimes are allowing terrorists and insurgents to use their territory to move in and out of Iraq. Iran is providing material support for attacks on American troops. We will disrupt the attacks on our forces. We’ll interrupt the flow of support from Iran and Syria. And we will seek out and destroy the networks providing advanced weaponry and training to our enemies in Iraq.

   Sounds great. But there is less there than meets the ear — maybe much less.

   At a background briefing before the president’s speech, administration officials, quite appropriately, refused to get into what the new strategy for dealing with Iran and Syria precisely entails. But it was fairly clear that military steps outside Iraq are highly unlikely.

   An official pointedly explained that, while the violence in Iraq is being “fiercely stoked” by Iran and Syria, the mayhem would not end even if the Iranian and Syrian influence were to disappear.

   True enough, but still, this is a very strange distinction to draw. Material support is, after all, material support. Under the Bush Doctrine as articulated in September 2001, it is supposed to be met with a vigorous American response because we deem rogue regimes to be just like the terrorists they abet. Patently, in the case of Iran and Syria, we have not done that. In turning away from the Bush Doctrine in this most essential of its potential applications, we have turned away from the blueprint for winning the war — not the Battle of Baghdad but the War on Terror.

   I feel better, don’t you?

   He goes on to complain that Bush isn’t killing more of them.

   • 

     Steven D on January 11, 2007 at 10:02 am

     I thought I fixed the link. I’ll try again.

   • 

     Steven D on January 11, 2007 at 10:03 am

     It works for me:

     Google “Three explosions jolt southern Iran” (the Reuters headline) if it isn’t working for you still.

     • 

       Madman in the Marketplace on January 11, 2007 at 10:05 am

       oh, thanks, got it that time.

2. 

   Shalimar on January 11, 2007 at 10:16 am

   It isn’t working.  The official Iranian line seems to be they were planned controlled explosions to eliminate mines and weren’t anywhere near oil facilities.

   • 

     Steven D on January 11, 2007 at 10:29 am

     I don’t believe that mine story. That would have been announced beforehand if that was the case.

     • 

       Shalimar on January 11, 2007 at 11:59 am

       I’m not sure I believe it either, but how do we know it wasn’t announced beforehand in the local news?  I personally can’t speak Arabic, so no fact-checking from me.

       • 

         Omir the Storyteller on January 11, 2007 at 12:15 pm

         Or Farsi, which is what they speak in Iran. 🙂

         But yeah, I think it’s time to put on the BBC World Service. They’re usually pretty good at being on top of things. Whwn I was a kid only radio geeks like me could listen; nowadays anyone can tune in (use the links at http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice ).

         (Heh. I went to check the link above and what was the top story?

         US to target anti-Iraq activity
         The US secretary of state says the US will take action against any country seeking to destabilise Iraq.

         Yeah, cause, like, that’s our job, dude.)

         • 

           Shalimar on January 11, 2007 at 3:51 pm

           I used to listen to internet radio (including BBC) constantly, because I worked from home and didn’t have a television so there wasn’t much else.  I hadn’t tried it since I moved across the street to a house with DirecTV but no broadband.  Turns out it works fine on dialup, and now my grandmother can watch TCM all day like she prefers to do.  American news sucks by comparison, so we’re both probably getting a better end of the deal.

           As for Farsi, I used to know that in college but that was so many years ago there was no way I would remember regardless of how many chances you gave me.

           I still haven’t seen or heard anything on the consulate invasion on US tv or internet news, but BBC has it as a major story.  The difference is startling.

         • 

           Omir the Storyteller on January 11, 2007 at 4:36 pm

           Isn’t it though? That’s why I recommend it to people. We tend to get a US-centric view of things here; listen to the BBC, or Deutsche Welle, or Radio NHK Japan, or whoever for a while and you find out what’s important to the rest of the world. (And today I found out Beckham is coming to the United States to play for the Los Angeles Galaxy. How ’bout that?)

           Most audio streams of national broadcasters use a pretty low bandwidth. They can get away with it because they are primarily voice rather than CD-quality music, and the voice has a much more limited audio range than most music. Even so, the music on the BBC’s Internet stream sounds better than it used to when I was listening to it over the air.

3. 

   GreyHawk on January 11, 2007 at 10:21 am

   First the consulate raid, now this.

   Bush is escalating things as fast as he can.

4. 

   Oui on January 11, 2007 at 12:58 pm

   .

   3 Blasts Rock Southwestern Iran

   TEHRAN (Fars News Agency) – Three giant explosions scared many people to death in the southwestern city of Khorramshahr in Khuzestan province Thursday morning.

   Khorramshahr Governor Mohammad Ali Shirali told FNA that the three explosions this morning were caused by a landmine diffusion (defusion – Oui) operation in a field in the vicinity of Khorramshahr. He further assured that the city had already been informed of the blasts through the mass media.

   “We are decisive to clean all the mine fields in the area in a bid to restore normal conditions in this region and pave the ground for the economic prosperity of Khorramshahr and the surrounding villages and areas.”

   The official further stressed that the giant blasts were caused due to the great pile of defused mines gathered in the field at the time of explosion.

   "But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."