We have been hearing the saber rattle for years now on the necessity for the US to preemptively protect ourselves from Iran.
The intensity of the saber rattling has been ratcheting up in the last six months, and is beginning to feel like a deja vu of the run up to the Iraqi war.
We have heard recently from General Petraeus that there is proof of Iranian weapons striking the US greenzone in Iraq. But now we have an update from LA Times that disputes that assertion.
In the article posted on May 8, 2008, at the LA Times blog Babylon and Beyond, Tina Susman reports from Baghdad regarding a recent press briefing:
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.
Among other things, Bergner cited 20,000 "items of ammunition, explosives and weapons" reported by Iraqi forces in the central city of Karbala; an additional Karbala cache containing 570 explosive devices, nine mortars, four anti-aircraft missiles, and 45 RPGs; and in the southern city of Basra alone, 39 mortar tubes, 1,800 mortars and artillery rounds, 600 rockets, and 387 roadside bombs. Read his remarks here.
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.
She goes on to say:
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.
Here is a video mentioning the Iraqi "evidence" of Iranian weapons that was to be revealed, as mentioned in Susman's article. In particular watch from about the 1:30 minute mark for possible sabre rattling motive:
From the mouth of a UN inspector, the extreme seriousness of the matter:
Trying to make sense of the propaganda? Join the club. Check out minute 5:00 for possible evidence that Ahmajinedad is not considering attacking Isreal:
Turns out, our not talking with Iran is not going to make them fade into obsolescence. While we ratchet up war talk they are ratcheting up peace talk. "This is the time for dialogue." (already years ago)- General Wes Clark explaining why the sabre rattling does not help the situation at all:
What are we to think now? What are we to do? We watched the slow motion trainwreck unfold in Iraq, are we just going to continue to watch as it spreads out to Iran and potentially goes Nuclear? All I can think to do now is pray for peace in the Middle East. And pray that our leaders come to their senses. (Somehow, I don't think that is gonna be enough.)