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Countering Iran

[Washington Post] Editorial - Iranian-backed militias and "special groups" in Iraq have evolved from a shadow force into the largest remaining threat to U.S. forces and the Iraqi government. It was Iranian-supplied rockets that slammed into the Green Zone in recent days and Iranian-trained militants who stiffened the resistance to Iraqi government forces trying to gain control over the southern city of Basra. The proxy war in Iraq is just one front in a much larger Iranian offensive. Israel has been fighting an on-and-off battle in the Gaza Strip with Hamas cadres that also have been trained and equipped by Iran's Revolutionary Guard. In Lebanon the Iranian-backed Hizbullah movement has paralyzed the government while rebuilding its own massive arsenal, which now includes tens of thousands of missiles. And last week, Iranian President Ahmadinejad announced another major acceleration in the country's nuclear program which would give Iran the capacity to produce the core of a bomb in a matter of months. The urgency and momentum of the Bush administration's multilateral diplomatic campaign against Iran drained away following the release in December of a National Intelligence Estimate that misleadingly emphasized Iran's reported decision to put one part of its nuclear program on hold. The reports to Congress by Gen. David H. Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker point at a growing menace that the Bush administration, and its successor, cannot afford to ignore.
2008-04-14 01:00:00
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