The deployment of two aircraft carrier task forces to the Persian Gulf is a direct and deliberate challenge to Iran. As newly minted Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said recently:
the addition of another aircraft carrier
task force to the Persian Gulf is both to show the level of American
commitment to the region, and to remind Iran just how much firepower
sits off it’s southern coast.
That my friends is called sabre rattling. We also have news that Bush authorized capture/kill operations against Iranians inside Iraq, which came on the heels of a U.S. raid on an Iranian diplomatic mission in northeast Iraq and resulted in the capture of five Iranians awaiting their diplomatic credentials. If you are Iran you take these as more than mere emtpy symbolic gestures.
The war of words towards Iran is heating up as well. We are now hearing on almost a daily basis some dire warning about Iran and the threat it poses to the region. Reuters reported that John Negroponte, the nominee to be Deputy Secretary of State:
told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that an
emboldened Iran presented new difficulties for U.S. interests in Iraq,
the Gulf region, Lebanon and in Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking,
And here’s the messages the American people are hearing in the last couple of days:
Iran giving weapons to militias
Iraq has become a proxy battleground between Washington and Tehran
Iran involvement suspected in Karbala compound attack
Gee, sort of makes you long for the good old days when our major concern was “Al Qaeda” in Iraq under the malevolent leadership of Zarqawi. Al Qaeda has been pushed down on the priority hit list. Oh sure, they get mentioned once and awhile, but our new villain is Iran and its squirrely leader, Ahmadinejad. Face it. Al Qaeda is so yesterday.
Ignore the fact that most of the U.S. casualties are caused by Sunni insurgents, and most of these in the Al Anbar province. Get with the new mantra. “Iran, terrorism; Iran, terrorism; Iran, terrorism”. Did I forget to mention “Axis of Evil”? If we say it enough we will believe it is so. Watch for this in the coming days as the media, mainstream and peripheral, pick up the drumbeat and join the chant. The American people are being conditioned for a new war.
Unfortunately, Iran has a 25 year track record of backing terrorist attacks against U.S. interests and is doing little to act conciliatory. This high stakes game of chicken is headed towards an inevitable collision. We are being propagandized to believe that bombing Iran is our only option. We are being told that there is no room for negotiations. Ignoring areas of common interest–the rise of the Taliban and the Kurds–that could be a basis for negotiations. Nope, we’re singing a song:
Bomb, bomb, bomb
bomb bomb Iran.
Bomb, bomb, bomb
bomb bomb Iran.
Bomb Iran
Because we can.
Bomb Iran
We’ll be rocking and rolling
rocking and reeling
Bomb Iran.
