Iraq, Iran and the President's Troop Surge

When President Bush unveiled his new strategy for dealing with the ongoing violence in Iraq, he made it a point to reinforce a fact that he and the rest of the world have known for some time now: that Iran and Syria are directly responsible for fomenting violence in Iraq to further their regional interests and, in the case of Iran, to consolidate the position of the Iran-friendly Shi'a. In reality, Syria is just a side-show. It is Iran that the message was really directed at.

The President went further in his message to the world than just re-stating the obvious. He put the clerics in Tehran on notice, saying "We'll interrupt the flow of support from Iran...," letting the Islamic Republic know that the United States intended to put a stop to, or at least degrade the Persian influence in its neighbor's internal affairs.

Almost immediately after the President spoke to the nation from a library inside the White House, American military forces in Iraq raided an Iranian consular office in the city of Irbil, detaining several Iranian citizens. Of course, this isn't the first time we've sent Tehran a message about its activities in Iraq. But in the past, we haven't been taken seriously. This time, though, may be different.

Think about it. I'm sure the Iranians, along with everyone else, expected the United States to start drawing down its forces in the region. Instead, the President did the opposite of what everyone was telling him. Instead, he decided to increase the U.S. presence in Iraq and ease the restrictiveness of the Rules of Engagement that our forces have been operating under. Surely that's not what the Iranians expected, or wanted.

All of a sudden people in the United States and in Iran are wondering if the President is shifting some of his focus to another member of the "Axis of Evil," with American Senators warning Mr. Bush to stay out of Iran and Arab governments in the Middle East getting nervous because the United States was not doing what they expected.