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Why Such Claims?  Given that the increased use of EFPs has been apparent for many months and the U.S. government has not produced any additional evidence regarding their origins, it is highly probable that Washington is raising the issue now primarily for political reasons. Indeed, National Public Radio reported that military officials in Iraq were under intense pressure from Washington to go public with these findings right away.
Most speculation has centered around the possibility that the Bush administration is trying to divert attention from the failures of its policies in Iraq by blaming a foreign government. More disturbing still would be U.S. efforts to lay the groundwork for a U.S. attack on Iran. It may also be an attempt to provide cover for President Bush’s rejection of the growing bipartisan consensus – as exemplified by the Baker-Hamilton Commission Report – of the importance of engaging Iran on issues related to Iraq and regional security. In his January 10 speech announcing the escalation in American combat forces in Iraq, President Bush insisted that Iran was “providing material support for attacks on American troops” and allowing “terrorists and insurgents” to use its territory “to move in and out of Iraq.” In response, he made a not-so-subtle threat to attack Iran. “We will disrupt the attacks on our forces,” Bush said. “We will interrupt the flow of support from Iran…and we will seek out and destroy the networks providing advanced weaponry and training to our enemies in Iraq.” Bush presented no evidence to support these charges. Nor did he address why Iran would support “terrorists and insurgents” that elsewhere in his speech he identified as Sunni extremists and part of the al-Qaida terrorist network, both of which are fanatically anti-Shi’ite and anti-Iranian. Nor did he address the considerable evidence that what limited outside support the insurgents have been receiving has come primarily from private sources in Saudi Arabia, a U.S. ally. By the time of the State of the Union speech later that month, however, the administration began to realize that its charges that Iran was somehow aiding al-Qaida and other enemies of its allies in Baghdad were not being taken seriously. So they began to push the far more plausible message that Iran was arming Shi’ite extremists. Segments of the Iranian government and religious hierarchy certainly have been providing training, arms, financial, and logistical support to Iraqi Shi’ite political groups and their militias. Some of these militias have engaged in death squad activity against the Sunni Arab community in Iraq. However, most of these groups are allied with the U.S.-backed Iraqi government. Indeed, the largest party in the ruling coalition is the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), whose leadership spent most of their exile years in Iran and was recognized as the government-in-exile by the Iranian clerics while Iraq was still under Saddam Hussein’s rule. The Iranian Revolutionary Guards trained and organized the SCIRI’s militia, known as the Badr Corps, which even fought alongside Iranian forces during the 1980s in the war with Iraq. Similarly, the Dawa Party of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maleki and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) of President Jalal Talabani also have had close and longstanding ties with the Iranian government. By contrast, with the possible exception of some radical elements outside the official government hierarchy, Iranian authorities have generally been reluctant to ally themselves with the more extremist anti-government Shiite factions. In other words, the Iranian government and the U.S. government are essentially on the same side in Iraq’s ongoing conflict. Thanks to the willingness of the United States to overthrow its secular archenemy Saddam Hussein, Iran now has close allies in charge in Baghdad. And, as part of a desperate effort to curb the growing Sunni-led insurgency, the United States has been willing to throw its support to Iraq’s democratically elected government, though it is run by pro-Iranian Shi’ite hardliners, and to turn a blind eye as the Badr Corps and other radical Shi’ite militias have thoroughly infiltrated the Iraqi police and military. On one hand, President Bush is quite correct in alleging that, in response to terrorist attacks against Shi’ite civilians by elements of the Sunni-led insurgency, “Radical Shia elements, some supported by Iran, formed death squads” that have contributed to the “vicious cycle of sectarian violence that continues today.” What he ignores, however, is that the majority of this death squad activity has come from U.S.-armed-and-trained Iraqi police and military units. According to official Central Command figures, these forces have received thousands of U.S.-made machine guns, grenade launchers and high-mobility vehicles – not to mention hundreds of thousands of AK-47 rifles – courtesy of the American taxpayer. In other words, the United States is far more responsible for providing support for death squad activity by radical Shi’ite militiamen in Iraq than is Iran. Geopolitical Implications Not only has the United States suffered enormous losses in lives, resources, international standing, and long-term security as a result of its invasion of Iraq, the Bush administration has delivered a strategic and diplomatic windfall to the reactionary Iranian mullahs and their supporters in both countries. Rather than acknowledge this predictable result of that tragic decision, however, President Bush has instead put the blame on the Iranians. He has insisted they have no right to interfere in the internal affairs of their next-door neighbor that the United States invaded and, nearly four years later, continues to occupy. Furthermore, instead of recognizing that Iran is simply seeking to gain some advantage from the dramatic U.S.-instigated changes in the political and strategic situation on their western flank (as would any regional power in a comparable situation), President Bush has tried to depict Iran’s role as something far more sinister: as yet another front of “the war on terrorism.” It is true that, not surprisingly, the Iranian government has pursued policies that have generally not encouraged the establishment of a democratic, pluralistic and stable Iraqi society in the wake of the 2003 U.S. invasion. However, it is extremely dangerous for the Bush administration to misrepresent and exaggerate Iranian actions and to engage in hyperbole and threats. Although elements of the Iranian regime may have contributed to the suffering of the Iraqi people, it pales in comparison to the damage inflicted upon that country by the United States. Recommend this article...
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