Not quite yet…
http://www.voanews.com/english/2007-02-12-voa20.cfm
Top American General Disputes US Military Claim on Iran
OK, now it is.
What’s to stop him ?
Attacking Iran would be a last resort. Responding to a sneak attack would be ideal, pre-emptive strikes to protect our heroes would do pretty well.
Anyone taking bets on how long he remains “top American military commander”?
Well. Its about 6:30 ET now…10?
… Shirley, you jest?
Whoever wrote that headline should be fired. General Pace did not dispute the claim, he merely declined to endorse it, on the quite reasonable grounds that he had not been briefed.
Did you read it, BG?
Yeah, I read that. It’s what I would say, being a civilian entirely shut out of the loop. It’s not a dispute or denial. Pace can honorably change his tune (or not) after reviewing the “evidence.”
I doubt he knows that. And don’t…well, you know. 
One of the Iran briefers was apparently Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, who has often briefed the press under his own name, but apparently didn’t want to be associated with this pile of crap.
If this was a few years ago, I’d wonder why. By now, it’s pretty obvious.
If any withdrawal of American troops from Iraq will only “embolden the enemy”,
then we can never, ever withdraw our troops.
Is that about right?
Well, not until a stable and effective Iraqi government and Iraqi military are established and there is no threat of further civil violence if we withdraw.
IOW, never, ever.
Actually, rereading the article more carefully, I fear you are right. It looks much less like a direct contradiction and more like an “I didn’t get the memo.” (One could perhaps argue that the “top military commander” should be in the immediate loop on a revelation of such import, but that’s another story.)
If he repeats the assertion after a day or two, after he’s surely had time to be “briefed,” I will find it more impressive.
What a bunch of wankers. One would think the Baghdad briefing just materialized out of thin air.
The ‘briefing’ for journalists consisted mainly of a powerpoint presentation. They weren’t provided with a copy and not allowed to picture the physical ‘evidence’.
No doubt to stop us wasting our time futilely querying the provenance and robustness of such cast-iron proof. :rolleyes:
Article in the Daily Telegraph.
Last year, the Steyr company in Austria shipped 800 .50 caliber rifles to Iran. The weapons were requested by the government there to help with antinarcotics efforts.
Over the last year, more than 100 of those weapons, or more than 12% of of a shipment of rifles that cost more than $23,000 each, have been discovered in the hands of insurgents in Iraq by British and American forces. The weapons have been used to kill at least one American officer.
This is another smoking gun, this time a literal one.
Yes, that looks pretty damning but it is a poor thin excuse for war and still doesn’t show this is official Iranian action and not a rogue operation.
So long as the USA and the UK insist on their right to attack and invade, insist on their right to arm and fund whoever they like then they can’t complain when others do the same.
And of course it pales into insignificance compared to the whole Contra/Ollie North shit pile.
Given the belligerent attitude of Bush to Iran if I were in charge I’d think myself derelict in my duty if I wasn’t doing everything possible to keep the invaders next door too tied up to carry out their regime change fantasies. And i’ve no doubt at all we are arming and supplying terrorists in Iran.
Like the MEK
The answer, as the Iraq Study Group said, is to sit down and negotiate with Syria and Iran and drop all this Axis of Evil comic book simplicities. Iran and Syria both know that whatever influence they have over the various militias and insurgent groups (and I’d bet it’s minor compared to domestic Iraq motivations) is a bargaining chip.
It’s not like we have any qualms about supping with a host of other equally vile regimes around the world.
SHHH!. Didn’t you get the memo? You’re supposed to say something to the effect that “you’re opposed to the war but you support the troops”, or something similar. Pay attention. Try not to let this slip out again. This is almost as big a mistake that the NY Time’s made: the Abu Ghraib story was supposed to make it to page one no more than 149 times. Try to be more careful, comrade.
Oh please, these are Iranian Narcotics squads. You presumption of their lack of corruption is staggeringly naive.
Weapons go missing even when handled with the best of intentions:
For all anyone knows, the devices on display last sunday were purchased on the international market,
and have nothing to do with Iran, other than the fact that Iran does have an arms industry.