Troop surge paves way for wider war: Bush authorizes shoot-to-kill policy against Iranians in Iraq

The existence of the program was confirmed by Bush Friday. He told reporters that “it just makes sense that if somebody is trying to harm our troops and stop us from achieving our goal, or killing innocent citizens in Iraq, that we will stop them.” The White House and the Pentagon have long claimed that Iranian military and intelligence operatives in Iraq have provided supplies for roadside bombs and technical assistance for attacks against US troops. Not a shred of evidence has ever been presented to substantiate these claims.

The targeting of Iranian citizens has one purpose: to provoke a military confrontation with Iran. The revelations about the program follow the bellicose threats against Iran and Syria made by Bush in his January 10 speech, when he said American military forces would “seek out and destroy the networks providing advanced weaponry and training to our enemies in Iraq.” The next day, US forces raided the Iranian consulate in the northern Iraqi city of Irbil, detaining at least five diplomatic employees. Shortly afterwards the US dispatched an additional aircraft carrier battle group, armed with nuclear weapons, to Iranian waters in the Persian Gulf.

These provocations against Iran underscore the fact that Bush’s decision to send 21,500 additional troops to Iraq has nothing to do with stabilizing the situation in the country—a proposition that no serious observer considers achievable through such a deployment. On the contrary, faced with a military and political debacle in Iraq, the White House intends to extend the war to Iran and its population of 70 million people.

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http://wsws.org/articles/2007/jan2007/iran-j29.shtml