Blame Iran: Sorry, Trish, I’ve been reading Defense Department press releases again. I just can’t stop myself.
They put out a doozy yesterday that featured British Royal Marine Lt. Gen. Robert Fry, deputy commander of Multinational Force Iraq and the senior British military representative in Iraq. It seems that American media have grown wary of listening to U.S. military officials, so the DoD decided to foist a guy with a funny accent on them via satellite phone from his Baghdad headquarters. Fry collaborated by parroting a smorgasbord of drivel, inanities and lies, as well as bully-talking to Iran on Bushco’s behalf.
‘I think that we can see a very clear Iranian role in stoking up violence inside Iraq.’
Fry claimed that Iraq is experiencing some localized sectarian strife, but is not embroiled in a full-blown civil war as reported by some irresponsible news media: “In my judgment, we are not in a situation of civil war,” said Fry. He acknowledged a “very intense sectarian conflict” in an area that includes Baghdad and its environs and reaches 40 miles or so north to Baqubah.
Fry has a very narrow definition for “civil war”:
He said a collapse of central government and large-scale population migrations are hallmarks of civil wars. So Iraq is not in a civil war because the Iraqi government is intact and functioning, Fry said. Also, there’s no mass movement of Iraqis milling about the land or leaving the country, he added. Iraq’s elected leaders are in control and are busily addressing pressing national issues, he said.
Most of Iraq is stable, Fry pointed out, noting 14 of the country’s 18 provinces experience little or no violence. He also cited the Iraqi police takeover of security duties in Muthanna province at the end of July as another positive step. Japanese military engineers that had worked in that province have been sent home.
Now that last bit is just not true — the Japanese were not “sent home,” they left, as ordered by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi after a couple of them got their asses shot off.
Fry noted that a majority of Iraq’s citizens are Shiite, and were persecuted for years by Saddam Hussein’s pro-Sunni regime. Then, no doubt following orders from Downing Street and the White House, Fry tries again to link Al Qaeda to Iraq, blaming the group for the bombing of a Shiite mosque in Samarra, are charging that the global terror organization wants to start a Shiite-vs.-Sunni civil war to bring down Iraq’s democratically elected puppet government.
Joining forces with Al Qaeda to incite violence between Iraq’s Shiite and Sunni population said Fry, is the evil Shiite Iranian government. He claimed that Iran is sending money, weapons and personnel into Iraq to assist pro-Shiite insurgents.
“I think that we can see a very clear Iranian role in stoking up violence inside Iraq,” Fry said, citing continuing anti-Iraqi government rhetoric voiced by senior Iranian officials. Some anti-terrorist military operations in Iraq are aimed at interdicting Iranian-sourced weaponry and training cadre, he said.
Fry said statements from [Prime Minister Nouri] al-Maliki and other senior Iraqi officials, who have vigorously denounced Iranian meddling in Iraqi affairs, encourage him. Such outspokenness by Iraqi officials demonstrates Iranians aren’t pulling the strings of a “puppet” Iraqi government, he said.
Yeah, it’s Bushco that’s pulling those strings, buddy, and don’t you forget it!
Fry said U.S., British and other coalition forces are providing stability until the new Iraqi government and its security forces achieve traction. And after the violence in Iraq subsides, there will “need to be a certain process of settlement as people find their level in political terms and economic terms, and indeed, in terms of just the social and cultural accommodation of living together,” Fry said.
I would argue that the insurgents are just trying to accelerate the process of people finding their level, and the sooner the U.S. is out of Iraq, the sooner that process will be complete.
