Posted on 10/24/2006 8:28:26 AM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - America's civilian and military leaders in Iraq linked Iran and Syria with al Qaeda on Tuesday as forces trying to tear the country apart and prevent the United States from establishing a stable democracy.
The comments from ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and General George Casey were among the strongest U.S. officials have leveled against Iraq's two neighbors over alleged support for armed groups behind much of the bloodshed.
Khalilzad depicted the struggle to build a united, democratic Iraq as "the defining challenge of our era" and said it would shape the future of the Middle East and global security.
"Those forces that constitute the extremist camp including not only al Qaeda but Iran and Syria are at work to keep us and the Iraqis from succeeding," Khalilzad told a rare joint news conference with Casey, two weeks before U.S. Congressional elections.
"They fear Iraq's success. They want to undermine our resolve by imposing costs on us in terms of prolonging the conflict, imposing casualties and creating the perception that Iraq cannot be stabilized," Khalilzad said.
Al Qaeda and Iraq's "foreign rivals" were trying to tear the Iraqi people apart along sectarian lines, Khalilzad said, naming Iran and Syria as countries that "cynically support rival groups involved in the violence".
Iran, which has close religious ties to Iraq's majority Shi'ite population, and Syria, largely Sunni Muslim, both deny supporting armed groups in Iraq.
"PROMISES OF HELP"
Khalilzad called the news conference to answer mounting questions in the United States about U.S. strategy in Iraq ahead of elections on November 7 that opinion polls suggest could cost President George W. Bush's Republicans control of Congress.
Khalilzad said the United States had asked Arab states such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan to encourage Sunni insurgent groups to end the violence and join the political process.
"These countries have promised to be helpful," he said.
Casey called both Syria and Iran "decidedly unhelpful".
Violence in Iraq has spiraled this year in a frenzy of sectarian killings that Casey and Khalilzad blamed on al Qaeda, insurgents, rival militias and death squads.
Khalilzad said Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, a Shi'ite, had told him that the radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr supported government efforts to disband party militias.
"We will see what happens," he added.
Sadr controls the powerful Mehdi Army militia, which Sunni leaders and U.S. officials blame for some of the worst atrocities in the conflict. It has also been involved in fighting among Shi'ites in the southern town of Amara.
Sadr disowns violence in his name but is fiercely opposed to the U.S. occupation and has been seen this year as among the closest of the Iraqi Shi'ite leaders to the Iranian leadership.
Khalilzad and Casey last appeared together at a news conference in Baghdad on June 8 following the killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq. Casey said the Zarqawi group had been weakened but remained lethal.
October is already the deadliest month for U.S. forces in Iraq since last November, with 88 killed so far. Casey said 300 Iraqi soldiers and police had also been killed during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, which is now ending.
He added that, "One of our proposals is to form a national salvation government away from sectarian quotas and to depend on a strong statesman like Iyad Allawi, who, although he is Shia and I am a Sunni, showed he is non-sectarian. The man is acceptable to the majority of the resistance factions, the Baathist, the secularists, the nationalists, and the military. We believe that he has a lot of keys for a solution to the crisis. We hear that the Iraqi street wants the return of Allawi to save the country from this tragic situation, especially since he resisted the presence of militias during his tenure, which did not witness what is happening today despite the fact that he did not form his government as he wished. This does not mean that the current government has no competent ministers. These, however, cannot offer anything in light of the current situation. And then [the other proposal is] to prepare for democratic elections under the UN supervision."
Seems like Tenet and Powell should get more of the blame in the MSM,....now why don't they?
Read more at sacredscoop.com ...
Quit pointing a finger and kick some a$$ instead.
This is the disastrous legacy of Jimmy Carter's idiotic decision to allow Iran to be taken over by the brutal mullacracy. Our job in Iraq would be much easier if Iran was still a US ally. Carter's catastrophic mistake in Iran is now causing enormous problems for America and those problems will not be fully solved until the current Iranian regime is replaced with a new government that is friendly towards America.
That may happen sooner than anyone thinks. If the Iranian regime continues with nuclear weapons develoment, it may get hammered and severly weakened sometime next year, possibly before summer.
Syria has some very nasty chemical weapons (rumored to have been used with brutal impact in the Sudan) which make an invasion of Syria much too difficult. We don't want to send the entire Middle East into turmoil at the same time, but we have to start dealing with these hostile regimes one at a time. They are destabilizing Iraq and adding enormously to the cost for us in blood and treasure. Thanks again, Jimmah Carter, you dolt.
so when do we start bombing the border towns in syria and iran used as the jumping off points?
(crickets chirping...)
thought so.
But hey, we are going to replace the "stay the course" slogan with something else.
Yeah - "Why?", is right.
Why would Reuters publish this? Are they slipping? Was there a revolution in the newsroom?
Almost looks like some very high level people in Europe and Washington asked them to publish this article. Iran is a big problem for Europe and Iraq needs to be stabilized before Europe and the US deal with Iran and its nuclear weapons program.
Sadr controls the powerful Mehdi Army militia...both of which should be annihilated.
Speculation is that Mookie fired up his ignorant clans and can't even stop them from exacting revenge on Sunnis even if it is imprecise.
Mookie's guys also just hit out on the rival Shite group, the Badr boyz.
So now you have the beginnings of all out civil unrest as Mookie tries to position himself to seize power completely. This while he is allied and getting money and arms from Iran.
Unless there is an RX for this punk, I don't see things getting better, at all.
19 October 2006 - AN MP has urged the government to come clean over the threat faced to British troops by Iranian paramilitaries in Iraq. Beckenham MP Jacqui Lait spoke out after the Ministry of Defence claimed it had no knowledge of how many Iranians had been arrested in Basra since the end of Saddam Hussein's regime. Blasting the MoD's stance as "disingenuous", she said: "What I am hearing on the ground is that quite a number of Iranians are very active in the area. "I would have thought it would be a matter of some note for people who are concerned about international relations, and I would expect those people who need to know probably do know."
Acting on information from sources inside Iraq, Ms Lait tabled a parliamentary question asking how many Iranians had been arrested in the region occupied by British troops in southern Iraq. Defence minister Des Browne replied on October 9 that just one Iranian national had been detained by British forces, in 2003, and had been subsequently released. However, he added that the MoD "do not hold records on individuals arrested by the Iraqi Police Service", leading to criticism from the Beckenham MP.
Ms Lait said: "It is disingenuous. I, like most MPs, have contacts among people out in Iraq and they tell you things." The Ministry of Defence described information linking Iran to the worsening security situation in Iraq as "subjective and unsubstantiated" and declined to comment on Ms Lait's comments. Iraq and Iran formed a working group on Monday to build security and intelliegence ties, the Iraqi government announced on Sunday, despite concerns over Tehran's role in the country. The US has accused Iran of "fuelling the deadly violence sweeping Iraq" and accused the country of smuggling weapons to Iraqi militias.
patrick.clift@archant.co.uk
HUMINT: The situation around Basra is grim - Iran is deeply involved there. Clearly there are number of dimensions to the fight across the entire country. IMO it's too convoluted to call a civil war. Some are calling for a strong man to bring things under control - the country obviously needs a strong democratic government with strong leadership. What country doesn't need quality leadership who understand the mechanics of progress and liberty? We could use more of it here in the US.
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