[A-List] US Buildup in Persian Gulf, Sharper Rhetoric Take Aim at Iran

["Yoshie Furuhashi" <critical.montages@xxxxxxxxx>]

<http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/01/17/america/NA-ANL-US-Iran.php>
US buildup in Persian Gulf, sharper rhetoric take aim at Iran
The Associated Press
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
WASHINGTON

Provocative words by U.S. President George W. Bush and a fresh
American military buildup in the Persian Gulf seem to mark a U.S. new
focus on Iran that could signal another Cold War or even a deadly
confrontation.

As the USS Stennis aircraft carrier began its journey to the Gulf on
Tuesday, top administration officials traveling in the region defended
the increased U.S. presence there as the only way to impress on Iran
that the four-year war in Iraq has not made America vulnerable.

Sending a second carrier to the Gulf for the first time since 2003 and
positioning a Patriot missile battalion in the region mark a broader
U.S. stand in the Middle East at a time when diplomatic efforts with
countries such as Iran and Syria have stalled. It also puts U.S.
policy at odds with the bipartisan Iraq Study Group's recommendation
that the administration should reach out to Iran and Syria to bring
more regional support to Iraq.

Trita Parsi, an Iranian-born author and Middle East scholar, said the
strategy will lead to an endless balance-of-power game that will drain
American resources and undermine the U.S. position in the region.

"If we think that we, in the long term, can keep a country like Iran
constrained and contained, then we're asking for a fight," said Parsi,
who is president of the National Iranian American Council. "Iran is a
major power in that region. You cannot contain it without having a
confrontation."

Bush set the tone during his prime-time speech last week, insisting
the U.S. would not deal with countries that fund terrorism and vowing
to "interrupt the flow of support from Iran and Syria" to Iraq
terrorists.

As Bush was delivering his speech, U.S. forces led a raid on an
Iranian government liaison office in Irbil in northern Iraq, arresting
five Iranians the U.S. military said were connected to an Iranian
Revolutionary Guard faction that funds and arms insurgents in Iraq.

Bush authorized U.S. raids against Iranian targets in Iraq several
months ago, U.S. officials have said. The U.S. says Iran has been
providing bombs and training in how to use them to anti-U.S. forces in
Iraq.

"The United States is simply responding to Iranian activities that
have been going on for a while now that threaten not just to
destabilize the chance for Iraq to proceed to stability but also that
endanger our forces," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said last
week.

Iran and Syria both denied supporting fighters in Iraq. Iran denied
the five were involved in financing and arming insurgents and called
for their release along with compensation for damages.

Bush's broad salvo against Iran, and the accompanying military
buildup, was defended by some as a necessary show of strength.

James Carafano, a Middle East scholar at the Heritage Foundation,
likened it to the "muscular containment of the Soviet Union during the
Cold War."

"These are diplomatic moves to show Iran that the U.S. is serious
about protecting its interests in the Gulf," said Carafano. He said
the Iranians were feeling more empowered as they saw the U.S. get
bogged down in Iraq and unable to muster an international effort to
deter Tehran's nuclear program.

Jon Soltz, an Iraq war veteran who heads the VoteVets Action Fund,
said such war games will fail because Iran knows the U.S. does not
have the power to force regime change there. He said the move could
signal a forthcoming strike against Iran or be an attempt to create
enough leverage to force Tehran back into talks on its nuclear
ambitions.

"By us playing more war games with them, it only gives them more
reasons to tie us down in Iraq," he said.

Members of Congress have also expressed concern and pressed the
administration to say whether the U.S. military has plans to move into
Iran or Syria, and if that could be done without congressional
authorization. Administration officials have said diplomacy comes
first, but have never ruled out attacks on Iran.

The escalation against Iran comes as polls show Americans are
overwhelmingly unhappy with Bush's Iraq policy. Seventy percent oppose
sending more troops to Iraq, as he intends to do, according to an
Associated Press-Ipsos poll last week.

Rice, who has been meeting with Middle East leaders in the region,
said the U.S. does not intend to cross the Iraq-Iran border to attack
Iranians. But she said the beefed-up American presence is a response
to Iranian activities that threaten to destabilize Iraq and the
region.

Echoing her concerns, Defense Secretary Robert Gates — also traveling
in the Middle East — said the U.S. is flexing its military might to
underscore its long-term commitment to the region. He said the
Iranians "clearly believe that we're tied down in Iraq, that they have
the initiative, that they are in a position to press us in many ways."

Gates comments came as the Stennis pulled out of its home port in
Washington, in the first leg of its journey to the Gulf. The Stennis,
with about 3,200 sailors aboard, will stop first in San Diego to pick
up its air wing, and then head to the Middle East to join the aircraft
carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower — more than doubling American
firepower in the waters there.

And a Patriot Missile air defense battalion from Fort Bliss, Texas, is
heading to missile batteries in the Middle East. The Patriots, said
military officials, are the world's best missile defense system, and
positioning them will reassure U.S. allies they will be protected in
the event of an Iranian ballistic missile threat.

___

On the Net:

Defense Department: http://www.defenselink.mil


--
Yoshie
<http://montages.blogspot.com/>
<http://mrzine.org>
<http://monthlyreview.org/>