Today:
4 troops abducted, killed in Iraq attack (Yahoo News - AP)Ok. Now does anyone remember this from 11 JAN?
In perhaps the boldest and most sophisticated attack in four years of warfare, gunmen speaking English, wearing U.S. military uniforms and carrying American weapons abducted four U.S. soldiers last week at the provincial headquarters in the Shiite holy city of Karbala and then shot them to death.
The U.S. military confirmed a report earlier Friday by The Associated Press that three of the soldiers were dead and one was mortally wounded with a gunshot to the head when they were found in a neighboring province, about 25 miles from the compound where they were captured. A fifth soldier was killed in the initial attack on the compound. (More...)
US Iraq raid draws Iranian anger (BBC News)
US forces have stormed a building in the northern Iraqi town of Irbil and seized six people said to be Iranians, prompting a diplomatic incident.
Iranian and Iraqi officials said the building was an Iranian consulate and the detainees its employees. (More...)
3 comments:
Hey Snag. You probably recognize me by now, but in case you don't, I've been reading Deprogramming Starter Kit since June 2005. I first found you through Zach's blog, and I've left a few comments at your place starting with the Iraq version of the I'm Fixin' to Die rag, if I remember right. Called myself The Doctor or Doc or 13thRegeneration at that time, and on that note, I had no idea you were a fan of Baker's Who. Cool. Douglas Adams' City of Death was the series that started it all for me when I was a kid.
Looks like your perspective is back with a vengance. Double cool. I've been missing your analysis. I'm gonna link your new creation here, if that's alright with you.
As for the article above, my first thought when I read it yesterday was that these "abductors" were trained El Salvador-style death squads of the type we've already seen in Iraq. Their MO seems identical, they have American equipment, they speak english. Maybe I'm just thick today but I'm not making the Iran connection you're implying, unless you're saying that these guys were Iranian special ops, which I hadn't thought of but could be possible, since Iranians can surely get basic American equipment and know english.
However, since you say that these dots are both "big" and "easy", yet I'm still not sure I'm on the right track, I presume I'm just being thick today.
Ah, now it all makes sense. The idea that Iraqi Shiia are working for Iran is probably the most plausible explanation, and it's another I hadn't thought of. That'd explain why people who bear all the marks of U.S. training (which, speculatively, they received so as to empower them to go El Salvador on the Sunnis back in the early stages of the conflict) were now going after us. In light of our assistance to the Shiia cause in Iraq, I couldn't come up with a good reason for them targeting us so aggressively, outside of generalized tinfoil hat notions of CIA directives to keep the region unstable.
This is why I dig your outlook. I'm interested in exactly how much "more" you think there is to this.
And yeah, I don't always have my blog up in my profile because I don't necessarily like to notify blogger of all my updates, but I'm not fishing for a reciprocal link, not that I'd refuse one. I was just asking permission to link you because I didn't last time. I've been reading since 2005 (whenever I had an internet connection) and I'd be comfortable betting that I've contributed less to your comments section than your average frequent visitor. It seemed only fair to delurk at your new place here and give you the option of saying "beat it."
But, if you want to check the place out, see if it's worthy and whatnot, it's engulfedcathedral.blogspot.com. There's nothing from this last week up there because I just took a break but I'll be back posting tomorrow.
I'll check the link out. Thanks for dropping by and the support.
While the attack was more sophisticated than your everyday insurgent lashing out at us, just in the four years alone that we've been in country years it would have easy to observe our tactics or those employed by the mercs and mimic them. Whether is was directed by Iran or just retaliation by sympathizers, it seems directly connected, tit-for-tat to me. Look at the number of people taken in both cases, the fact that it was in a place of claimed government function. The U.S. troops ended up dead and dumped because they themselves didn't have any real importance, they were only symbolic, and Iraqi security was right on their heels.
I think we're now entering an ugly little, "non-war" war with Iran until one side or the other gets tired of taking the "high road" and fires the first shot in view of the public. The whole statement last week that "we will kill any Iranian who means harm to U.S. interests" was for public consumption only. We've been doing that all along.
Bush has only got less than to years to get his full conflagration of the region. He's managed some nice, big bonfires so far but the Persian empire would be his crown jewel.
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