There is no question that the US is already fighting Iran by proxy, in Iraq:
BAGHDAD – Iraqi Shiite extremists are being trained by members of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah in camps near Tehran, a U.S. military spokesman said Monday.
Iraqis are receiving the training at camps operated by the Quds Force, an elite unit of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps that has been accused of training and funneling weapons to Shiite extremists in Iraq, Air Force Col. Donald Bacon, a U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad, told The Associated Press.
“We have multiple detainees who state Lebanese Hezbollah are providing training to Iraqis in Iranian IRGC-QF training camps near Tehran,” Bacon said.
The Quds Force is also known as the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps-Quds Force, or IRGC-QF. Al-Quds is the Arabic name for Jerusalem. — AP
It is not unimportant that the Iranian unit is called the “Quds force”. The desire to expunge the Jewish state from the Middle East is a fundamental part of Iranian policy, not a sideshow.
I’m reminded of Lucy Dawidowicz’s book, “The War Against the Jews, 1933-1945“, in which the writer shows that many of Hitler’s strategic decisions — even many that were militarily disadvantageous — were taken in order to enable the murder of Jews. Indeed, it appears that antisemitism was a major factor motivating of Hitler, and not just a demagogic tool that he used to inspire support.
In the case of Iran, there is a correspondence between her geopolitical aim to dominate the region and to export revolutionary Islamism, and also to become the great hero of the Muslim world by finally putting an end to Israel.
In the geopolitical arena, Israel projects Western power. Israel is what prevents Lebanon from falling under the control of Hezbollah, and thereby Iran. It also props up Jordan. Paradoxically, it can even be argued that it supports the hostile Assad regime in Syria and the semi-hostile Egyptian state against the strong (Sunni) Muslim Brotherhood movements in those nations.
As an aside, it’s interesting to see how Shiite Iran manages to cooperate with Sunni radicals in Hamas and Al-Qaeda in Iraq and other places, to advance common goals of resisting the US and destroying Israel.
Having said all of this, it should be obvious that Israel and the US have the same enemies. American interests demand a strong Israel, because we do not want to see half of the Middle East fall under Iranian control, or even divided between Sunni and Shiite radical Islamic regimes.
If this is true then why is the US pursuing a policy of weakening Israel by forcing it to make concessions in the name of a ‘peace’ agreement with a Palestinian rump faction that can’t possibly deliver any kind of peace, and won’t even recognize Israel as a Jewish state? Don’t we understand that the concessions we are demanding simply make a Hamas takeover of all of the occupied territories more likely?
In my opinion, the US is playing the dangerous game of supporting the Saudi vision of the Mideast, in which Iran’s Shiite Islamic revolution is contained by US military might and radical Sunni Islamism, such as that of Al-Qaeda, is financed and kept on a tight leash by the Saudis, who view themselves as the natural leaders of the Sunni world. The risk for the US is that the leash will break and the weak, corrupt Saudi royal family will be overthrown by Al-Qaeda (or similar) fundamentalists.
The Saudis wish to split off Hamas from Iran and take overall control of the Palestinian movement. From the Israeli point of view, Saudi influence is as bad as Iran’s, if the result is a Hamas state in both Gaza and the West Bank.
A better policy for the US and Israel would be a strong Israel that could resist Hamas and Hezbollah, as well as supporting pro-western forces in Jordan. The US also needs to confront the excessive Saudi influence here which skews policy in a direction which actually strengthens Al-Qaeda and other Sunni terrorist factions.
Technorati Tags: Israel, Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Mideast conflict
It has been clear for some time now that the Saudi position has what has pushed the U.S. to try to prop up the Palestinian Arabs, and provide them a state. I agree it would be wiser to not go through the fake negotiating ritual, and simply unequivocally support Israel.
But this will not solve the United States’ problems in the area. The Energy question is a major one and the U.S continues to bungle it.
Iran continues to pursue its nuclear option and Israeli Intelligence has now shortened its estimate of the time in which Iran will need to have nuclear weapons.
Bush promised this would not happen on his watch. And it is happening.
The major challenge now for the U.S. is to stop Iran from becoming nuclear.