Iran, Iraq and the U.S.

The new twist in Iraq’s mess is: Blame the Iranians! Nothing has worked so far, not even the deployment of more troops which has been condemned as futile by the majority of opinions, including those who at one time were fervent Bush follower’s, so the administration has found a new boogie man to scare us into accepting the horrible policy they are pursuing.

Is Iran arming some of the insurgents? I don’t know, really nobody knows for sure, but it is possible. The same as is possible that any other country in the region, feeling threatened by the conflict, may be arming one side or the other inside Iraq. After all, we are arming and putting troops on the ground with the clear intent to influence the internal political make-up of the country and eventually the region itself.

So, if others who oppose our point of view, whatever that may be, don’t like what we are doing, makes sense that they’ll try to counteract our actions. And this may be especially valid in the case of Iran, a country who has received nothing but harsh comments from our side and lots of veiled threats from our president. Between the stubbornness of Bush, an unlikely international expert and the big mouth of Condi Rice, forever blasting the Iranians, mostly on the intended use of atomic energy, that country has been left with little choices, if any, given the persistence of conflict in Iraq, a very close neighbor.

What we see as threat from Iran is really a by-product of our own doing. Pushing the entire region into fear with more troops and now the possibility of expanding the conflict into border nations creates the impression that not only Iraqis should follow our design, but everyone else around it.

That may have worked in Bush’s Fairyland, where Iraq should be a paradise by now with a happy and complacent population, grateful to live in harmony, peace and free of dictators. It hardly makes sense in the actual reality, where our troops are practically gambling their lives in every encounter and hoping that the guy they meet on the street does not carry a bomb to blow them up.

Unless the U.S. policy in the region does a 180, Iranians, Syrians and even many Pakistanis will never show good will and support to facilitate a solution. And why should they? Can they trust the American policy being implemented at the present time in Iraq? Sadly, we have nothing to show for; with the exception perhaps that Hussein is no longer there. Iraqis are fighting among themselves, sometimes with the willing help of foreign radicals, and killing each other by the dozen. Is this what the rest of the region can expect from our actions? I doubt they’d like that.