I'm stunned this is in the NYT; it's probably the only newsworthy thing they've reported in a month of Sundays.
Somehow this is Bush's fault.
bttt
Let's get busy against Iran.
The NYT probably interprets this to mean that Iran is really good after all.
Just trying to stir the pot to build up pressure against us taking out the Shiite militia leaders and their Iranian puppet masters.
I think it might backfire on 'em.
It wont change their stock price.
Oh, it does come with a little spin. Later in the article:
The raids threaten to upset the delicate balance of the three-way relationship between the US, Iran and Iraq. The Iraqi government has made extensive efforts to engage Iran in security matters in recent months and the arrests of the Iranians could scuttle those efforts.
Note the emphasis here - it is the raids that endanger the negotiations, not the campaign of bloody violence managed by Iran that is evidenced by the raids. It is the negotiations that are the objective and not the ending of that violence.
It is difficult not to suspect that the reporter here is proceeding under the assumption that the mission these men were on was perfectly legitimate and that it's too bad that they were found out. That is probably overstating the case but it does strike me as a rather odd attitude to be seen in a journalist.