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Tuesday, January 18, 20051106078700
Concrete Proof
"U.S. Building Forts On Iraq Border: 32 Forts Being Built," by Cami McCormick, CBS News, http://kutv.com/topstories/topstories_story_018113151.html, 18 January 2005 (from DU).
The most telling sign yet up a U.S.-Iranian entente
Securing these borders is a priority of Task Force NAHA, based at Camp Korean Village near the town of ar Rutbah. And at the remote Al Walid border crossing, just over two dozen Marines work with the Iraqis, overseeing their inspection of cars and trucks.
The U.S. military is also supervising a complex of 32 forts being built along the borders with Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Syria. The Marines move the Iraqis into them as quickly as possible, because in the past the forts have been looted and destroyed before they could be manned.
That's three of Iraq's six neighbors.
1. Syrian border - forts being built
2. Jordanian border - forts being built
3. Saudi Arabian border - forts being built
4. Kuwaiti border - U.S. presense from Perisan Gulf War
5. Turkish border - Kurdish peshmerga on both sides of border
6. Iranian border - ???
This literally concrete proof of U.S. and Iraqi intentions toward Iran. Both the U.S. and Iran have a firm interest in maintining a Shia-Kurdish Iraq. And both have interests in a free flow of migrants across the border -- Iran wants to allow easy passage to the Shia Holy Cities in Iraq, while the U.S. belives free movement into a democratic Iraq will convince Iranians of the benefits of freedom in their own nation.
The shift of Iraq from a sun of a Sunni solar system to a satellite in the Shia sphere is stunning. We are succeeding in changing their world. We are altering things forever.
The other thing to notice: Syria and Iran are/were allies, but we're watching the Syrian border closely. The Syrian-Iranian entente was built on two pillars: joint support for the Christian-Shia factions in the Lebanese civil war against the Palestinians and later the Israelis, and their use to each other as counterweights to Iraq.
Why would Iran want a counterweight to a Shia Iraq?
What use are Syria's factions in Lebanon anymore? Of the original fighters -- the U.N., U.S. Marine Corp, Syria, Israel, PLO, the only one still in Lebanon is... Syria. Why would Iran want a strong Syria, with a foothold in Lebanon and insurgent ties in Iraq, considering...
Iran and Iraq are now natural allies just as Iraq and Syria are once again natural enemies.
What an interesting world!
14:05 Posted by Dan tdaxp (Webmaster) in Iran, Iraq | Permalink | Comments (0) | Email this | Tags: walid, frontiers, shia