corrente

Waist deep in the Big Muddy:

Neo-conservatives close to the administration of President George W Bush are pushing for retribution against Iran for, they say, sponsoring this week's Shia uprising in Iraq led by radical leader Moqtada al-Sadr.

But independent experts say that while Iran has no doubt provided various forms of assistance to Shia factions in Iraq since the ouster of former President Saddam Hussein one year ago, its relations with Sadr have long been rocky, and that it has opposed radical actions that could destabilize the situation.

"Those elements closest to Iran among the Shia leaders (in Iraq) have been the most moderate through all of this," according to Shaul Bakhash, an Iran expert at George Mason University here.

The Iran hand was first raised in connection with Sadr's revolt by Michael Rubin, who just returned as a "governance team adviser" for the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) in Iraq to his previous position as a resident fellow at AEI.

Another senior CPA adviser, Larry Diamond, a neo-conservative who specializes in democratization at the California-based Hoover Institution, told IPS this week that Sadr's Mahdi Army, and other Shia militias, are being armed and financed by Iran with the aim of imposing "another Iranian-style theocracy".

On Tuesday, the 'Wall Street Journal's editorial page took up the same theme, arguing that Sadr has talked "openly of creating an Iranian-style Islamic Republic in Iraq (and) has visited Tehran since the fall of Saddam. His Mahdi militia is almost certainly financed and trained by Iranians," the editorial continued, adding, "Revolutionary Guards may be instigating some of the current unrest".

"As for Tehran, we would hope the Sadr uprising puts to rest the illusion that the mullahs (in Tehran) can be appeased. As Bernard Lewis teaches, Middle Eastern leaders interpret American restraint as weakness. Iran's mullahs fear a Muslim democracy in Iraq because is it a direct threat to their own rule."

"If warnings to Tehran from Washington don't impress them, perhaps some cruise missiles aimed at the Bushehr nuclear site will concentrate their minds," the Journal suggested.-Dawn/The InterPress News Service.
(via Hi Pakistan)

Thanks to alert reader Xan for the pointer to Hi Pakistan—whoever they are, they get the WSJ, which is more than unfunded bloggers can do.

The CPA is, of course, a nest of Republican operatives and a branch of the RNC (back).

Half a league, half a league, half a league onward.....

UPDATE A little tu quoque from alert reader pfc:

Cruise missles thrown at a plant in a Muslim country? Isn't that defined by this administration as "swatting at flies"?