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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (264752)	5/26/2008 1:23:10 AM
From: geode00	Respond to of 281500

What were British soldiers doing in Iraq? Iraq is a mess with millions of refugees created by the twin idiots of Bush and his poodle Blair. Explain that first you twit.

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (264752)	5/26/2008 7:50:52 AM
From: SARMAN	Respond to of 281500

Meanwhile, let's discuss the evidence of what Iran has been doing lately. One might inquire by what right Iran spends millions of dollars to foment chaos and massacre Sunnis in Iraq. Nadine, the US spent almost one trillion dollars to bring chaos into Iraq, few millions is nothing. Oh by the way, the deal between the Americans and Sunnis in Iraq is nothing but a cease fire. Thus, no progress in Iraq. The Jewish state is still requesting blood to satisfy its thirst.

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (264752)	5/26/2008 10:02:45 AM
From: Ruffian	Respond to of 281500

Iran 'paid Iraq insurgents to kill UK soldiers' By Sean Rayment, Defence Correspondent Last Updated: 10:45AM BST 25/05/2008 Iran has secretly paid Iraqi insurgents hundreds of thousands of American dollars to kill British soldiers, according to a leaked government document obtained by The Telegraph. Mahdi Army fighters take positions in Basra: Iran paid Iraq insurgents to kill UK soldiers Mahdi Army fighters take positions in Basra: the reports details that young men were paid up to up to $300 a month to fight the British The allegations are contained in a confidential "field report" written by a British officer who served in Basra during one of the most dangerous periods of the conflict. The report, which has never been made public, shows the full level of Iran's involvement in the insurgency for the first time. The document states that the Jaish al-Mahdi (JAM) – also known as the Mahdi Army – one of the most violent insurgent groups operating in Basra, used money from Iran to recruit and pay young unemployed men up to $300 (£150) a month to carry out attacks against the British. The findings have been passed to the highest levels in the military. The leak comes at a time of rising tension between Iran and the international community, as Tehran continues to stonewall UN inquiries into allegations that it has carried out research to develop a nuclear weapon. Article continues advertisement <A TARGET="_blank" HREF="http://ads.telegraph.co.uk/event.ng/Type=click&FlightID=28144&AdID=34515&TargetID=3121&ASeg=&AMod=&Redirect=http://video.flashtalking.com/tags/2236/34/click/0-c_2236-34.html?ftoobclck=&224410"><IMG SRC="http://video.flashtalking.com/tags/2236/34/image/300x250_lg_altGIF.jpg?224410" BORDER=0></A> The report, "Life Under Fire in the Old State Building", details the activities of British troops under the command of Major Christopher Job, of the 2nd Lancashire Regiment, between November 2006 and March 2007. In the report, Major Job discloses that in the course of five months his base was attacked 350 times. Old State Building, which is in the centre of Basra, is the most-attacked British base in recent history. In an attempt to discover who was behind the attacks, the officer says he established a network of informers, who supplied him with detailed intelligence on the actions of the insurgents and who was behind their funding. The officer states that the reports of Iran's involvement came from a network of 25 sources, which included a former Iraqi army general, prominent businessmen, local sheikhs and council leaders. He writes: "We learnt from a number of our Key Leadership Engagements [local contacts] that the source of the problem was the level of unemployment in Basra. "JAM, using funding from Iran, paid the unemployed youths in the region of $300 per month to attack Multi National Forces. We also learnt that JAM had a drugs culture and that youths literally got hooked on being associated with JAM." Twenty-seven members of the Armed Forces died and dozens were seriously injured in southern Iraq between November 2006 and May 2007, the period that Major Job covers in his report. A senior British officer who has recently returned from southern Iraq said that the existence of "Iranian finance teams" in Basra was widely known by the British military and Foreign Office, although always officially denied. He said: "It suited Iran to arm JAM in order to allow them to have the means to hit us." Patrick Mercer, the Tory MP and a former infantry commander said: "This report makes it quite clear that Iran is directly involved in funding the insurgency." He added: "The Government must confront Tehran over the deaths of British troops – anything else is appeasement." A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence said: "There is evidence to suggest a malign influence in Iraq by Iran, including the supply of equipment and armaments which are used by insurgents against UK forces in Iraq. "This influence is completely unacceptable and serves only to undermine the efforts by the government of Iraq and the coalition."

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (264752)	5/26/2008 10:37:31 AM
From: Sun Tzu	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

>> Meanwhile, let's discuss the evidence of what Iran has been doing lately. Let's not. Let's stick to the topic of discussion, instead. What is your response to the statements by Shlomo Ben-Ami, Israel's former foreign minister, Ephraim Halevi, the former head of the Mossad, and Martin van Creveld, an Israeli military historian? Here is the passage again: Israeli decision-makers have been in a state of strategic paralysis, incapable of recognizing the new chessboard and the necessary adjustments they need to make. They have feared recognizing publicly that Iran is a rational actor and that even a nuclear Iran wouldn't be an existential threat to the Jewish state, out of fear that such admissions would take pressure off of Washington to act firmly against Iran - the same argument Peres and Rabin used in the mid-1990s. Politically, this is understandable. No Israeli leader wishes to be the one to declare to the Israeli public that a critical step in the strategic rivalry with Iran has been lost, even though it was never really winnable. But some past politicians and decision-makers have started to speak up, arguably to end the strategic paralysis and cut Israel's losses. Shlomo Ben-Ami, Israel's former foreign minister, publicly argues that a US-Iran dialogue could benefit Israel. Ephraim Halevi, the former head of the Mossad, echoed in the Washington Post what he told this analyst last year - Iran is rational, it is not suicidal, it can be deterred, Israel can handle even a nuclear Iran and a dialogue is now needed between the Jewish State and the Islamic Republic. Noted Israeli military historian Martin van Creveld even told Newsmax last week that he "cannot think of even one case since 1980 and the Iranian Islamic Revolution that this country has behaved irrationally".