Iran Seen as Posing Long-Term Threat to Iraq
Military officials accused Iran today of posing a long-threat to Iraq by training and arming insurgents there, while American lawmakers said they were disappointed that Baghdad opened up its doors to the Islamic Republic’s top leader.
“I think it’s offensive,” Senator Levin, Democrat of Michigan, said of President Ahmadinejad’s two-day trip to Iraq this week.
Iraq has “got every right to invite whomever they want. They’re sovereign. But we have a right to express an opinion about it,” Mr. Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said.
Mr. Levin’s remarks come as America is struggling to combat Iran’s growing influence in the region, and senior military commanders say it is providing powerful bombs to Shiite militias in Iraq.
“We have no doubt they are still supporting insurgents,” the former no. 2 military commander in Iraq, Lieutenant General Ray Odierno, said at a Pentagon press conference. Asked if that was the greatest threat to stability in Iraq, he said, “If you ask me what I worry about most, I do worry about that as a long-term threat. And I think we have to, you know, constantly watch it.”
General Odierno, who has been nominated for a fourth star and assignment as vice chief of staff of the Army, said it was not surprising that there were fewer attacks during Mr. Ahmadinejad’s visit to Baghdad, since it is mainly Iranian-backed Shiite military members who have been conducting rocket and other attacks in the capital.
The top commander of troops in the Middle East, Admiral William Fallon, echoed these remarks in a Senate hearing at which he said Iran was fanning the flames of global terrorism.
While Mr. Ahmadinejad has denied charges of harmful meddling in Iraq, “the facts prove otherwise,” Admiral Fallon told the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Mr. Ahmadinejad’s visit to Iraq marked the first by an Iranian leader since the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.[…]
Read it all…McCain is the only one who can cope with this. Shrillary and Hussein? G-d help us.