The Socialist

The Socialist 15 February 2007

Scrap student fees now

Scrap student fees now

Cardiff students build for 22 February

Students must link up with workers

'Saintly' Tesco


A great step forward in Liverpool


Bush threatens Iran over Iraq insurgency

£100 billion Trident?

Angry refugees protest


Ten years of the socialist: 1997-2007


Bird flu outbreak: Profits put before health

Job losses fear on turkey farms

Workers' health jeopardised


Fighting back against NHS cuts


Police raids dividing community

Save our school buses

£84 million penthouse


Workers' strike declared illegal

HSBC imposes charges on aid to Palestinians


PCS action continues

Simclar workers fight sackings

EDS forced into 'U' turn on pay

Greenwich workers prepare to fight

Hackney UNISON

 
 
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Bush threatens Iran over Iraq insurgency

GEORGE BUSH'S administration has stepped up its threats against Iran, accusing the Islamic regime of supplying sophisticated roadside bombs to Shia groups in Iraq which have killed US soldiers.

This accusation coincides with a ratcheting up of tensions with Tehran over its uranium enrichment programme - which the US claims is aimed at developing a nuclear bomb and which Iran says is solely for peaceful purposes.

Last September Bush ordered the deployment of a major naval strike group including the nuclear aircraft carrier Eisenhower to the Persian Gulf just off the western coast of Iran.

And in late December 2006 five Iranian diplomats were arrested by US troops in Iraq. The US claims they are Iranian intelligence officers who were 'meddling' in Iraq's affairs. However, it transpired that the Iranians had been invited by Iraq's PM Nouri Maliki.

The arrests contradict the conclusion of the Iraq Study Group, headed by former US secretary of state James Baker, that the Bush administration should enlist the help of Iran and Syria in stabilising the situation in Iraq.

The US 'roadside bombs' claim against Iran is, according to Patrick Cockburn "similar in tone and credibility to those made four years ago by the US government about Iraq possessing weapons of mass destruction in order to justify the invasion of 2003." (The Independent, 12/2/07)

And, it is questionable how 'sophisticated' these roadside bombs are. Most of the improvised explosive devices used to kill US and British soldiers are heavy artillery shells looted from arsenals of the former Saddam regime and triggered by very unsophisticated remote control devices or command wire.

And while the US authorities continue with their 'foreign meddling' propaganda, and whatever Iran's role in Iraq's factional power struggles is, Iraq continues to sink further into a morass of sectarian violence, criminality, poverty and despair. Most of this has occurred since the US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003 and the subsequent occupation by thousands of coalition troops.


In this issue

Scrap student fees now

Cardiff students build for 22 February

Students must link up with workers

'Saintly' Tesco


Campaign for a New Workers Party

A great step forward in Liverpool


War and terrorism

Bush threatens Iran over Iraq insurgency

£100 billion Trident?

Angry refugees protest


Socialist Party feature

Ten years of the socialist: 1997-2007


Bird flu outbreak

Bird flu outbreak: Profits put before health

Job losses fear on turkey farms

Workers' health jeopardised


Socialist Party NHS campaign

Fighting back against NHS cuts


Socialist Party news and analysis

Police raids dividing community

Save our school buses

£84 million penthouse


International socialist news

Workers' strike declared illegal

HSBC imposes charges on aid to Palestinians


Workplace news and analysis

PCS action continues

Simclar workers fight sackings

EDS forced into 'U' turn on pay

Greenwich workers prepare to fight

Hackney UNISON


 

Home   |   The Socialist 15 February 2007   |   Join the Socialist Party

Subscribe   |   Donate   |   Bookshop

Related links:

Iran:

triangleSalford Socialist Party: Will there be war over Iran?

triangleBrighton Socialist Party: Will there be a war with Iran?

triangleRevolution in Iran: 1979 and Now

triangleWhere now for the Iranian revolution?

triangleIran - mass protests erupt

triangleIran 1979: A revolution that was taken from the working class

Iraq:

triangleThem & Us

trianglePower and terror

triangleFast news

triangleConsequences of 9/11: a world turned upside down

US:

triangleFight the Tories' Welfare Reform Bill

triangleLondon Socialist Party: Occupy USA

triangleUnilever strike: 'It's us that make them their money!'

Invasion:

triangleAfghan war

triangleDemonstrate against war in Afghanistan

triangleAfghanistan: an unwinnable war