Moqtada al-Sadr Pledges Support to Iran

Today's installment of freedom hatin' Muslim watch features a threat by Moqtada al-Sadr to turn the (up to now) compliant Shiite militias against "coalition" forces in the event of an attack upon Iran by the defenders of freedom (sic).

If the Shiites turn against the occupation it will be "game over" for the American folly in Iraq.

The commitment, made Sunday in Tehran during a visit by Sadr, came in response to a senior Iranian official's query about what the cleric would do in the event of an attack on Iran. It marked the first open indication that Iraq's Shiite neighbor is preparing for a military response if attacked in a showdown with the West over its nuclear program.

The pledge was also one of the strongest signs yet that Iraq could become a battleground in any Western conflict with Iran, raising the specter of Iraqi Shiite militias -- or perhaps even the U.S.-trained Shiite-dominated military -- taking on American troops here in sympathy with Iran.

The Bush administration cannot later claim that no one "anticipated problems" with an Iran attack:

"If there was an attack on Iran, even a limited military strike, this would provoke anger through the entire Muslim world. It would certainly jeopardize the already fragile position of the United States in Iraq," said Joseph Cirincione, an Iraq and nuclear weapons expert with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington.

"Whether that would mean an uprising, direct military clashes or simply demands that the United States would leave Iraq, we don't know," Cirincione said in a telephone interview. "But it won't be good."

Meanwhile, the propaganda program to stimulate the peace lovin' (sic) Americans into gratifying their urges on the playing field of Persia continues:

U.S. and British diplomats and commanders accuse Iran of allowing -- or encouraging -- transport of arms and fighters into Iraq to stage attacks.

Diplomats make no public statements of this type without express approval from their capital cities.

On Monday, a senior U.S. military intelligence official said the British government had issued a formal protest to Tehran after sophisticated bombs began appearing in southeastern Iraq. The devices used the same kind of electronic triggers found in bombs made by the militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon, the official said.

"Our belief is that the machining is done somewhere in Iran," said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Only someone who habitually pleasures himself to Tom Clancy novels would be capable of such a categorical statement. The statement ignores the fact that the "coalition" does not have the country of Iraq pacified to an extent to enable anyone to rule out local manufacture.

Not to mention all the missing munitions from Saddam's old stockpiles. Or the fact that the know-how necessary to build these "electronic triggers" could be learned by Iraqi insurgents from whatever source, including Iranian.

In other words, the propagandists' case is not nearly as cut and dried as they would like the public to believe.

As Bush would say: "It's hard work" to conduct all the propaganda campaigns the administration is currently juggling. There are simultaneous justifications for: the Iraq war, the coming conflict with Iran, and last but perhaps most important, trying to con the American public into believing that the extra-legal NSA warrantless eavesdropping is not a criminal offense.