Help. I'm confused about Iran's "meddling" in Iraq

[High Plains]

Just what is it Iran is alleged to be doing? I hear repeatedly that the Iranians are supplying the IEDS that are killing US soldiers. But I thought it was the Sunni insurgents who were planting the IEDs. And the Iranians are Shia. Are the Iranians helping the Sunni insurgents, who in addition to fighting the Americans, are fighting the Iraqi Shia? This doesn't make much sense.

I mean, aren't the Sadrs and Badrs both Iranian-backed, Iranian-trained? And the main parties in the government, Dawa and SCIRI, Iranian backed? (Okay, I might be confused here. It's hard to keep all this straight, especially when a lot of people have a vested interest in speaking with extreme impecision when it comes to "the insurgents" and "the terrorists.")

Lastly, I gotta say it's just a little bit ironic for the US to complain about other countriess "meddling" in Iraq, ain't it?

[madeline_con]

1. The whole thing's a lie to get troops into Iran.

It's not supposed to make sense unless you're a Freeptard.

[bigtree]

2. in Bush's address

he referred, incredibly, to Iran's influence in arming and supporting the Shiite militias which have been described by their Sunni rivals as death squads.

"Radical Shia elements, some supported by Iran, formed death squads," Bush said.

He made no mention at all of the Sunnis by name, except in declaring that our troops would go to al-Anbar to fight al-Qaeda.

There is no outside influence aiding and encouraging Iraqis to violence which comes anywhere close to the role Bush has played with his manufactured militarism. Iraq is Bush's battleground of choice for his contrived "war on terror." We're "fighting them there . . ." Not to mention at Bush's own role in the arming and training of these rogue Shia elements in Iraq - many of which began as militias under control of the new regime.

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/bigtree

[ewagner]

4. They're keeping quiet now....

but they were talking openly about the 80% Solution before Christmas....

What is the 80% Solution?

Simple....help the Shiia (which comprise 80%) of the population stamp out the Sunni (20% of the population and now called Al Queda) and then, viola'...you have "peace" and we WIN!!!

[Rick Myers]

3. I have seen them claiming Iran is providing EFP warheads

Explosively Formed Projectiles. Shaped charges that are more effective against armored vehicles.

[MADem]

5. Most of Iraq is shi'a. al-Sadr's daddy provided real, concrete help to

the Ayatullah Khomeini while he was in exile in Iraq. Khomeini's pic is all over Sadr City. They wear the black turban (the "we are descended from Muhamad" hat in Shia Islam) which makes them the coolest guys in the neighborhood. One of the main reasons that Sadr's daddy was killed was because of this closeness with the Iranian revolution.

The Iranians are helping the Iraqis KILL the Sunnis, see. That's why the Sunni House of Saud has told BushCo (when Cheney came for his asschewing last month) that there will be no rapproachment with Iran, and that the US is NOT allowed to leave Iraq, or else they would FUND a Sunni insurgency.

The Shi'ites hold most of the cards in Iraq nowadays. It's a bad time to be a Sunni there, because the once-trampled shi'a majority is into 'payback time' -- the question is, how much payback will satisfy them, or are they looking for a full-scale extermination? Some sure as hell are; others just want a pound or two of flesh.

The Iranians want to extend their influence in what is being termed a shi'a 'crescent' from Iran all the way to the sea in Lebanon. They want to use the majority population in Iraq as well as the substantial minority in Lebanon to accomplish this, and use as a bridge the smaller minority communities in Syria.

The Sunnis across the Arab world are freaking out at this plan--first, because they think Shi'ites are whacky (not 'true' Muslims, frankly, some of them feel) and this movement is led by people who are NOT Arabs--they're Persians, and I won't even get into the prejudices that go back and forth there. The Arabs think the Persians are soft and indolent mongrels, and the Persians think the Arabs are ignorant idiots who live in the desert and don't have social graces.

That is a broad brush view of the situation, and you'll find a ton of nuance in between, but it's how the lines are drawn of late.

[spanone]

6. Bushco doesn't think the voters can actually read and formulate opinions.

They think we're as stupid as Junior.

[Laughing Mirror]

7. Americans also supplying weapons to Sunnis

Gotta touch all bases, I suppose, make a profit however you can.

Rami was no longer involved in fighting, he said, but made a tidy profit selling weapons and ammunition to men in his north Baghdad neighbourhood. Until the last few months, the insurgency got by with weapons and ammunition looted from former Iraqi army depots. But now that Sunnis were besieged in their neighbourhoods and fighting daily clashes with the better-equipped Shia ministry of interior forces, they needed new sources of weapons and money.

He told me that one of his main suppliers had been an interpreter working for the US army in Baghdad. "He had a deal with an American officer. We bought brand new AKs and ammunition from them." He claimed the American officer, whom he had never met but he believed was a captain serving at Baghdad airport, had even helped to divert a truckload of weapons as soon as it was driven over the border from Jordan.

These days Rami gets most of his supplies from the new American-equipped Iraqi army. "We buy ammunition from officers in charge of warehouses, a small box of AK-47 bullets is $450 (£230). If the guy sells a thousand boxes he can become rich and leave the country." But as the security situation deteriorates, Rami finds it increasingly difficult to travel across Baghdad. "Now I have to pay a Shia taxi driver to bring the ammo to me. He gets $50 for each shipment."

The box of 700 bullets that Rami buys for $450 today would have cost between $150 and $175 a year ago. The price of a Kalashnikov has risen from $300 to $400 in the same period. The inflation in arms prices reflects Iraq's plunge toward civil war but, largely unnoticed by the outside world, the Sunni insurgency has also changed. The conflict into which 20,000 more American troops will be catapulted over the next few weeks is very different to the one their comrades experienced even a year ago.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1989397,00.html