Cox & Forkum: Dead Ball
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Cox & Forkum: Dead Ball
In our The 800-Pound Guerrilla post I explained why I thought Bush’s latest moves against Iranian influence in Iraq were not enough:
The plan, it appears, is to limit our military to attacks against terrorists and their supply lines within Iraq and refrain from attacking the source of those terrorists and supply lines: Iran. Bush is attempting to cure the symptoms while ignoring the disease. As such, the weapons and terrorists will keep flowing across the border, and the chaos in Iraq, though it may rise and fall, will ultimately continue because Iran needs it to continue. How can we expect our troops to win a war in which we don’t allow them to directly attack the enemy?In World War II, we didn’t stop with engaging enemy soldiers at the front lines; nor did we stop at disrupting their supply lines. We took the fight all the way to the weapons factories and the command centers from which the war emanated.
That point, I thought, deserved it’s own cartoon, especially since the White House is bending over backwards to “reassure” everyone that we’re only engaging Iran within Iraq. For instance, from Newsweek: Tough Talk About Iran: How Far Will It Go?.
In fact, administration officials (anonymous due to diplomatic sensitivities) concede that Bush’s Iran language may have been overly aggressive, raising unwarranted fears about military strikes on Tehran. Instead, they say, Bush was trying to warn Iran to keep its operatives out of Iraq, and to reassure Gulf allies—including Saudi Arabia—that the United States would protect them against Iranian aggression.
And from an article last week:
Asked whether the United States is preparing for a potential military conflict with Iran, President Bush’s national security adviser Stephen Hadley told NBC’s “Meet the Press,” “No, the president has said very clearly that the issues we have with Iran should be solved diplomatically.”
And another:
Defense Secretary Robert Gates told the House Armed Services Committee that U.S. troops are trying to crack down on the spread of Iranian-supplied explosives into Iraq, and the administration is “making it clear that those who are involved in activities that cost the lives of American soldiers are going to be subject to actions on the part of the United States inside Iraq.” [Emphasis added]
And now it is being reported that Iran has shot down an American pilotless spy plane.
Iranian troops have shot down a U.S. pilotless spy plane recently, an Iranian lawmaker announced on Tuesday as the Islamic Republic was facing increasing military pressure from its arch rival — the United States.
The aircraft was brought down when it was trying to cross the borders “during the last few days,” Seyed Nezam Mola Hoveizeh, a member of the parliament, was quoted by the local Fars News Agency as saying.
The lawmaker gave no exact date of the shooting-down or any other details about the incident, but he said that “the United States sent such spy drones to the region every now and then.”
But, the USS John C. Stennis is under sail and will reach the Persian Gulf within the month. There will be two United States Carrier Strike Groups in the region.
Is America going to protect its troops in Iraq and preemptively strike Iran, if need be?
You betcha…….
The “NUCLEAR POINT OF NO RETURN” is imminent……..
Stay tuned…….