Saturday, January 13th, 2007
About that Iran thing… Part the second
When it rains, it pours. In his “Stay the Course Without Appearing to Stay the Course” speech on Wednesday, the Decider with a Messiah complex and a chip on his shoulder the size of Meteor Crater tilted at some Syrian and Iranian windmills:
This begins with addressing Iran and Syria. These two regimes are allowing terrorists and insurgents to use their territory to move in and out of Iraq. Iran is providing material support for attacks on American troops. We will disrupt the attacks on our forces. We will interrupt the flow of support from Iran and Syria. And we will seek out and destroy the networks providing advanced weaponry and training to our enemies in Iraq.
I don’t care what his defenders say. In order for that angle of his plan to have any reasonable chance of success, at some point General Jack D. Ripper is going to have to cross the Iranian border, and when that happens…welcome to World War III - This Time It’s Not World War II!
Sadly, it appears that that precipice may be looming closer than it appears, as just the other day, American soldiers stormed the Iranian consulate in Irbil in northern Iraq, detaining six members of the staff for torture at Gitmo questioning. Worse, Kindasleezy Rice has confirmed that Commander Codpiece personally ordered the raids.
As Marc at Punkass Blog notes:
Not that you’d know it from most online US news sources (The Post excluded), but it appears the US engaged in an act of war with Iran:
Glenn Greenwald concurrs:
Isn’t it a definitive act of war for one country to storm the consulate of another, threaten to kill them if they do not surrender, and then detain six consulate officers?
And just why might this be considered an act of war? Well…according to Wikipedia, diplomatic missions, whether embassy or consulate or anything in between, have extraterritorial status, and thus, technically, are considered the sovereign territory of the country that operates the mission. Therefore, any violation of embassy extraterritoriality IS a violation of international law and can be considered an act of war.
Notable violations of embassy extraterritoriality include the Iran hostage crisis (1979–1981), the Japanese embassy hostage crisis (1996) in Lima, Peru, and the American raid on the Iranian consulate in Baghdad, Iraq (2007).
I suppose it would explain Bush’s decision to send Patriot missile batteries and not just one, but TWO carrier groups to the Persian Gulf.
If you’ve been harboring any hope of avoiding war with Iran, I have just one thing to say to you:
The avalanche has already started. It is too late for the pebbles to vote.
No wonder why the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists decided to adjust the Doomsday Clock. 30 seconds to midnight should be just about right…
