Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Bloomberg.com
April 13, 2008 By Matthew Benjamin, Bloomberg
The U.S. ``will go after'' Iranian surrogate operations in Iraq that are killing American and Iraqi forces, National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley said today.
``We will disrupt their networks by which they move fighters, weapons and funds in and around Iraq,'' Hadley said on ``Fox News Sunday.''
``We are concerned about their activities in the south'' of Iraq, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on another news program. ``We are concerned about the weapons that they are sending into -- that they continue to send into Iraq.'' Gates spoke on the CBS program ``Face the Nation.''
Last week President George W. Bush warned Iran against interfering in Iraq. ``If Iran makes the wrong choice, America will act to protect our interests,'' Bush said on April 10. Army General David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, said a day earlier that Shiite militia groups backed by Iran are the greatest long-term threat to Iraq's stability.
Gates said today that the level of Iran's ``malign influence'' in southern Iraq is now becoming clear. ``The hand of Iran has been exposed in a way that perhaps it had not been before,'' he said.
``Iran is very active in the southern part of Iraq. They are training Iraqis'' who attack U.S. forces, Hadley said. He said the U.S. has largely overcome two prior challenges in Iraq: sectarian violence and al-Qaeda, which he characterized as ``on the defensive.''
`Illegal Militias'
A third challenge, said Hadley, is ``the activities of illegal militias in the southern part of Iraq,'' where Iran is playing a role.
Even so, Gates said, ``the chances of us stumbling into a confrontation with Iran are very low.''
``Iran is a neighbor,'' Iraqi foreign minister Hoshyar Zebari said on ``Late Edition'' on CNN. ``We are destined to live with them. Really, we need to assume some good faith in dealing with them, trying to engage them, try to activate this tripartite dialogue between the United States, Iran and Iraq in order to address those issues of interventions and to address the issue of Iraq's security.''
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visited Baghdad in early March.
Both Gates and Hadley painted an upbeat picture of the war in Iraq, which the U.S. invaded five years ago. Gates said the Iraqi government is slowly but steadily taking control of the nation, ``province by province, district by district.''
`Right Direction'
``It's a process, and I would say the process has been moving in the right direction, if unevenly, over the past year,'' said Gates. For that reason, he said, ``I'm confident we will have lower force levels in Iraq in 2009.''
The Associated Press reported today that the Iraqi government dismissed more than 1,300 soldiers and police officers for refusing to fight against Shiite militias. Some security force personnel, including an entire infantry battalion, have refused to fight against the militias, in some cases handing over vehicles and weapons to them, AP said.
Hadley said on ABC News's ``This Week'' that the Iraqi government is underwriting an increasing share of the cost of maintaining security.
Zebari said Iraq is spending 10 times the money on things like defense and infrastructure that the U.S. is spending.
``We appreciate very much what the U.S. is contributing to help the Iraqis to rebuild, reconstruct the country,'' Zebari said. ``But in fact, we are shouldering the main burden on looking after our people, and extending services, and carrying out reconstruction projects throughout the country.''
Pelosi Response
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi disputed the American officials' view of Iraq. ``The president has been kicking the can down the road for the last couple of years,'' she said on the CBS news program. ``There is not a strategy involved here to go in, get a job done, and come home.''
Pelosi said the Iraqis have no incentive to take responsibility for their country while U.S. forces remain there. She said U.S. troops should be brought out of Iraq to focus on the ``real war on terror,'' which she said is in Afghanistan. ``That's where the threat is,'' Pelosi said.
Pelosi said Bush has a ``tin ear'' to the will of the American people and ``a blind eye'' to what is happening in the Middle East and Afghanistan.
April 13, 2008 By Matthew Benjamin, Bloomberg
The U.S. ``will go after'' Iranian surrogate operations in Iraq that are killing American and Iraqi forces, National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley said today.
``We will disrupt their networks by which they move fighters, weapons and funds in and around Iraq,'' Hadley said on ``Fox News Sunday.''
``We are concerned about their activities in the south'' of Iraq, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on another news program. ``We are concerned about the weapons that they are sending into -- that they continue to send into Iraq.'' Gates spoke on the CBS program ``Face the Nation.''
Last week President George W. Bush warned Iran against interfering in Iraq. ``If Iran makes the wrong choice, America will act to protect our interests,'' Bush said on April 10. Army General David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, said a day earlier that Shiite militia groups backed by Iran are the greatest long-term threat to Iraq's stability.
Gates said today that the level of Iran's ``malign influence'' in southern Iraq is now becoming clear. ``The hand of Iran has been exposed in a way that perhaps it had not been before,'' he said.
``Iran is very active in the southern part of Iraq. They are training Iraqis'' who attack U.S. forces, Hadley said. He said the U.S. has largely overcome two prior challenges in Iraq: sectarian violence and al-Qaeda, which he characterized as ``on the defensive.''
`Illegal Militias'
A third challenge, said Hadley, is ``the activities of illegal militias in the southern part of Iraq,'' where Iran is playing a role.
Even so, Gates said, ``the chances of us stumbling into a confrontation with Iran are very low.''
``Iran is a neighbor,'' Iraqi foreign minister Hoshyar Zebari said on ``Late Edition'' on CNN. ``We are destined to live with them. Really, we need to assume some good faith in dealing with them, trying to engage them, try to activate this tripartite dialogue between the United States, Iran and Iraq in order to address those issues of interventions and to address the issue of Iraq's security.''
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visited Baghdad in early March.
Both Gates and Hadley painted an upbeat picture of the war in Iraq, which the U.S. invaded five years ago. Gates said the Iraqi government is slowly but steadily taking control of the nation, ``province by province, district by district.''
`Right Direction'
``It's a process, and I would say the process has been moving in the right direction, if unevenly, over the past year,'' said Gates. For that reason, he said, ``I'm confident we will have lower force levels in Iraq in 2009.''
The Associated Press reported today that the Iraqi government dismissed more than 1,300 soldiers and police officers for refusing to fight against Shiite militias. Some security force personnel, including an entire infantry battalion, have refused to fight against the militias, in some cases handing over vehicles and weapons to them, AP said.
Hadley said on ABC News's ``This Week'' that the Iraqi government is underwriting an increasing share of the cost of maintaining security.
Zebari said Iraq is spending 10 times the money on things like defense and infrastructure that the U.S. is spending.
``We appreciate very much what the U.S. is contributing to help the Iraqis to rebuild, reconstruct the country,'' Zebari said. ``But in fact, we are shouldering the main burden on looking after our people, and extending services, and carrying out reconstruction projects throughout the country.''
Pelosi Response
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi disputed the American officials' view of Iraq. ``The president has been kicking the can down the road for the last couple of years,'' she said on the CBS news program. ``There is not a strategy involved here to go in, get a job done, and come home.''
Pelosi said the Iraqis have no incentive to take responsibility for their country while U.S. forces remain there. She said U.S. troops should be brought out of Iraq to focus on the ``real war on terror,'' which she said is in Afghanistan. ``That's where the threat is,'' Pelosi said.
Pelosi said Bush has a ``tin ear'' to the will of the American people and ``a blind eye'' to what is happening in the Middle East and Afghanistan.