Stoopid Stuff

Identification: Friend or Foe

The US military held a briefing today on Iran's alledged contribution to the insurgency's ability to kill American servicemen and women by providing advanced arms and training. Here's the money shot:

A senior defense official from the U.S.-led Multinational Force in Baghdad told a briefing that 170 coalition troops had been killed by Iranian-made roadside bombs known as explosively formed penetrators (EFPs) that he said were smuggled into Iraq.

Now follow the logic with me. We are allies of the elected Iraqi government, who, by dint of majority status are Shiites. As our allies, we are not fighting them, and they are not (supposedly) fighting us. Americans are engaging in combat against the Sunni, Neo-Baathist and al Quaida led insurgency. Bu there's no way Iran would supply weapons to the Sunnis. They might well supply weapons to the Shiites to use either in defense against the Sunnis or to actually kill Sunnis, either to ethnically cleanse certain neighborhoods or to perpetuate a long-running blood feud. So if the Shiites are our allies, and Iran supports the Shiites, and those 170 soldiers were killed by Iranian weapons, what conclusions can we draw about who our friends and foes are?

Well, it comes down to a rather stark choice. Certainly the Sunnis aren't receiving Iranian weapons unless they are buying them from third parties on the black market, which certainly would absolve Iran from any acusation that they are actively supplying the insurgency. In fact, the Sunnis buy many American supplied weapons from the corrupt and greedy Iraqi government. Maybe we should interdict ourselves? But if 170 American servicemembers were killed by Shiites, whether they be the Mahdi Army or Badr Brigades, then they are not our allies and we really need to rethink what it is we are trying to accomplish. The American charges lead to three options.

1. The Iranians are for some reason supplying the Sunni insurgency with weapons. If this is the story, the Americans are going to have to explain why this is so.
2. The Shiite Iraqi government is actually secretly fighting the Americans. If this is true, once again, the Americans are obligated to explain why they are doing so, and must stop treating them as an ally.
3. The Americans are lying in order to create the pretext for an armed conflict with Iran, which the bush/cheney cabal is going to create, one way or another.

If neither 1 or 2 is true, than 3 must be true. I'm looking forward to the intrepid reporter who will stand up and demand the US military explain these facts and take a position about who our friends and who our enemies are in Iraq...

posted by mikey @ 3:47 PM