Last night, Bush sent US forces to attack the inviolate territory of a foreign diplomatic mission, the Iranian mission in northern Iraq - legally, the land of a foreign nation - and took the Iranians hostage. It's hard to see under international law how this is legal, let alone how this isn't an act of war. And it's beyond ironic that we appear to have condoned the very action that we condemned Iran for - attacking diplomatic missions in violation of international law.
But what's most troubling about this is the transparency of what Bush is up to. He's trying to provoke a war with Iran, either by forcing Iran to strike back, or by discovering secret Iranian diplomatic documents that would prove their complicity in helping the insurgents in Iraq. We just invaded Iran last night, folks. Foreign embassies and diplomatic outposts are legally the foreign soil of the country represented. We invaded Iran. This is an act of war.
Only problem with Bush's plan? How exactly are we going to fight a war with Iran? Our generals told us we didn't even have enough troops to meet the needs of Bush's new escalation plan (the plan called for 32,000 more troops, the generals said we only have 22,000 or so available, that's it.) So where exactly will we get the troops to fight a new war with Iran, at the same time we're fighting a civil war in Iraq, and fighting an increasingly bad civil war in Afghanistan? Our worst nightmare would be Iran calling Bush's bluff and invading Iraq. So, why is it then that this is exactly what Bush is trying to provoke?
It's increasingly looking like Bush is more interested in provoking the coming Rapture than solving the multiple crises in the Middle East.
From AP:
Iraqi officials said Thursday that multinational forces detained as many as six Iranians in an overnight raid on Tehran's diplomatic mission in the northern city of Irbil....This is incredibly serious. Bush may have just given every country in the world justification for attacking US diplomats, attacking US diplomatic posts and embassies, and taking our diplomats hostage. Then again, he already gave the world a green light to torture our soldiers, so why not add American diplomats to the mix.
The forces stormed the Iranian mission at about 3 a.m., detaining the five staffers and confiscating computers and documents, two senior local Kurdish officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information....
A resident living near the mission said the foreign force used stun bombs in the raid and brought down an Iranian flag that was on the roof of the two-story yellow house.
At some point, we are a country of laws. That is supposed to be what differentiates us from the Irans and the Al Qaedas and the Saddams of the world. This is an incredibly serious breach of international law. It's also an act of war. A war we can't afford. Someone needs to stop this man before he kills again.
