Posted on 01/27/2007 12:34:56 PM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
WASHINGTON, Jan. 26 -- American soldiers will do what they must to protect themselves from Iranian agents operating inside Iraq, the White House said today, following a report that President Bush had authorized the killing of Iranian agents.
Rice Says Bush Authorized Iranians’ Arrest in Iraq
(January 13, 2007)
“If our troops get actionable intelligence that agents are going to cause our troops or Iraqi citizens harm, they’re going to take whatever force protections that are necessary,” said Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the National Security Council.
The president himself told reporters today that, “It just makes sense that if somebody is trying to harm our troops or stop us from achieving our goal, or killing innocent citizens in Iraq, that we will stop them.”
He made the comment at a White House appearance with Lt. Gen. David H. Petraeus, who was confirmed by the Senate today as the new commander in Iraq.
“And so, yeah, we’re going to continue to protect ourselves in Iraq,” Mr. Bush went on, “and at the same time work to solve our problems with Iran diplomatically. And I believe we can succeed.”
The president remarks were in response to an article in The Washington Post today that said the White House had authorized the United States military to kill or capture Iranian operatives in Iraq as part of an aggressive new strategy against Iran.
But Mr. Bush said any notion that the United States wants to widen its military campaign beyond the borders of Iraq “simply is not accurate.” The president and his top aides have said several times in recent weeks that there are no plans to pursue Iranian agents into Iran.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
fyi
No sure...I suppose the Iraqi's had a restraining hand in what we could do....so we seemed to have had a ....Hold and Release policy.....
The Irbil raid generated a lot of heat with the Iranians saying those we had captured were diplomats and some of the Iraqi highups saying we should let them go....not sure what we did with them....then came the attack in Karbala....so we have this latest ....
Iranians in Iraq? The nerve of the man!
Spank 'em. Make 'em go home crying to their mommies.
Yeah. If the law doesn't exist, the Iraqi parliament needs to pass it. Any non-citizen in the country undermining the govt needs to be arrested, interrogated, tried, and shot or imprisoned depending on the crime.
I'd haul any Iranians or Syrians back to Guantanamo and embarass the Iranian govt by making them beg for them back. You'd isolate the al-Sadr contingent pretty quick that way, and force the remaining factions to come together to solve the mutual problem.
A bump in troops would help with border security. Getting rid of foreigners would solve the problem quickly.
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