As you may know, the danger to U.S. forces in Iraq should the U.S. and/or Israel bomb Iran is a subject covered many times on Antiwar Radio with experts ranging from Patrick Cockburn to William S. Lind, Scott Ritter, Wayne White, Philip Giraldi and others for the last few years. Well, it looks like this most serious danger was in fact the deal breaker for this White House – or for Robert Gates?. Either way, I’ll take it.
JERUSALEM, Oct 6 (Reuters) – The United States will not permit Israel to attack Iran’s nuclear program as long as American troops are stationed in Iraq, an Israeli television report quoting unnamed diplomatic sources said on Monday.
An Israeli official accompanying Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on a visit to Moscow declined to comment on the report. Olmert flew to Moscow to press Russia not to sell advanced missiles and weapons technology to Iran and Syria.
The report on Channel 10 said any strike against Iran would leave U.S. forces based in Iraq vulnerable to retaliation. Depending on who becomes the next U.S. president, troops could remain in Iraq from under two years to indefinitely.
Perhaps they read Lind’s “How to Lose an Army” in the American Conservative:
A British journalist I know, one with long experience in Iraq, told me he asked the head of SCIRI, which controls the Badr Brigades, how he would respond if the U.S. attacked Iran. ‘Then,’ he replied, ‘we would do our duty.’
