This Guardian cover story is all over the blogosphere:
The official said US commanders were bracing for a nationwide, Iranian-orchestrated summer offensive, linking al-Qaida and Sunni insurgents to Tehran's Shia militia allies, that Iran hoped would trigger a political mutiny in Washington and a US retreat. "We expect that al-Qaida and Iran will both attempt to increase the propaganda and increase the violence prior to Petraeus's report in September [when the US commander General David Petraeus will report to Congress on President George Bush's controversial, six-month security "surge" of 30,000 troop reinforcements]," the official said.
Juan Cole thinks it's extraordinary that the Shia Islamic Republic would suborn Sunni jihadists, let alone target fellow Shia whom it has armed and trained:
At a time when Sunni Arab guerrillas are said to be opposing "al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia" for its indiscriminate violence against Iraqis, including Shiites, we are now expected to believe that Shiite Iran is allying with it. And, it claims that the Iranian Revolutionary Guards are shelling the Green Zone. The parliament building that was hit to day by such shelling is dominated by the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council and its paramilitary, the Badr Organization. Who trained Badr? The Iranian Revolutionary Guards. And they are trying to hit their own guys . . . why?
Why not? If the Badr Organization and Mahdi Army are seen by Tehran as making overtures to the Multinational Forces-Iraq, why not strike at your own minions to scare them into compliance? Sadr targets his fellow Mahdi riffraff when he thinks they grown too big for their britches and refuse to obey his commands.
And a Shia-Sunni jihadist alliance of convenience is hardly a new phenomenon. Far more startling than it is that a Mideast "expert" like Juan Cole finds it startling.
Out of a shared antagonism for Israel, Iran reportedly gave $50 million to Hamas in 2006 after the (Sunni) Islamist party gained control of the Palestinian government, whose total operating budget is $120 million.
Time for another bake sale, AIPAC.
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