IRAN'S BUSTED IRAQ BID (Iran's Quds unit failed to destabilize Iraq)

NY Post ^ | 04/10/08 | AMIR TAHERI

[TigerLikesRooster]

IRAN'S BUSTED IRAQ BID

By AMIR TAHERI

April 10, 2008 -- A GAMBLE that proved too costly. That's how analysts in Tehran describe events last month in Basra. Iran's state-run media have de facto confirmed that this was no spontaneous "uprising." Rather, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) tried to seize control of Iraq's second-largest city using local Shiite militias as a Trojan horse.

Tehran's decision to make the gamble was based on three assumptions:

* Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki wouldn't have the courage to defend Basra at the risk of burning his bridges with the Islamic Republic in Iran.

* The international force would be in no position to intervene in the Basra battle. The British, who controlled Basra until last December, had no desire to return, especially if this meant getting involved in fighting. The Americans, meanwhile, never had enough troops to finish off al-Qaeda-in-Iraq, let alone fight Iran and its local militias on a new front.

* The Shiite clerical leadership in Najaf would oppose intervention by the new Iraqi security forces in a battle that could lead to heavy Shiite casualties.

The Iranian plan - developed by Revolutionary Guard's Quds (Jerusalem) unit, which is in charge of "exporting the Islamic Revolution" - aimed at a quick victory. To achieve that, Tehran spent vast sums persuading local Iraqi security personnel to switch sides or to remain neutral.

The hoped-for victory was to be achieved as part of a massive Shiite uprising spreading from Baghdad to the south via heartland cities such as Karbala, Kut and al-Amarah. A barrage of rockets and missiles against the "Green Zone" in Baghdad and armed attacks on a dozen police stations and Iraqi army barracks in the Shiite heartland were designed to keep the Maliki government under pressure.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Thanks.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

The terrorist regime in Iran has been defeated in Iraq.

Set back, yes. Defeated? Time will show.

It is only too possible that we will be defeated on November 4.

[dalight]

It's "rout" not "route". A "route" is a road or way. Your dispatcher "routes" you from A to B; a large army "routs" you.

LOL, you can edit for me any time.

[dalight]

We get 90 minutes of his stuff every Friday night, between him and his altar-boy Brancaccio.

Ah grasshopper, man who watches PBS likely to get dizzy from liberal spin. Perhaps radio is your cure. Hugh Hewett is on about the same time, and is generally not a waste of time.