We are not leaving, Gates warns Iran as troop surge begins

[deminks]

Tehran sends out diplomatic feelers amid row over arrests

http://www.guardian.co.uk/iran/story/0,,1991306,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=1

The US defence secretary, Robert Gates, said yesterday that Iran believed it had gained the upper hand over Washington in the Middle East, but he declared the US military buildup was intended to signal American determination to remain a dominant player in the region.

Mr Gates, making his first visit as defence secretary to Nato headquarters in Brussels, delivered a defiant message at a time of rising tensions between the US and Iran, with the US arrest last week of five Iranians accused of fomenting the Iraqi insurgency and President George Bush's vow to "seek out and destroy" Iranian and Syrian "networks" in Iraq.

Iran yesterday appeared to offer an olive branch to Washington. A senior Iranian official, Ali Larijani, delivered a joint letter to King Abdullah from the Iranian supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad asking the Saudi monarch to act as an intermediary with the US. The letter was delivered on the eve of a visit to Riyadh by the US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice. Reuters news agency quoted an unnamed Saudi official as saying Iran wanted the Saudi king to relay a goodwill message to Washington to "help bring opinions together" between Iran and the US.

(snip)

The Bush administration rejected calls last month by the bipartisan Iraq Study Group led by James Baker, the former secretary of state, to open dialogue with Iran and has opted instead for a new confrontational approach. The administration insists the aim is not invasion of Iran but containment.

Bruce Laingen, the former US charge d'affaires to Iran who was held hostage in Tehran from 1979 to 1981, said he did not like the Iranian regime but urged the US to start talks with Tehran. Mr Laingen told the Guardian yesterday the Irbil arrests were a small incident. "The large picture is to find a mechanism to begin talks. Baker has spoken to the American ambassador in New York. The United Nations is always a place where you can begin some contact...There is always an opportunity if we want to exploit it. At present we are only interested in frustration."

(end snip)

Containment is not the neocon way.

[partylessinOhio]

1. "a dominant player in the region" Shut UP!

Many of us are sick of this crap! This is not a game. We need to mind our own business and get our nose out of other countries.

[Botany]

2. Oh for the love of God

The US defence secretary, Robert Gates, said yesterday that Iran believed it had gained the
upper hand over Washington in the Middle East, but he declared the US military buildup was
intended to signal American determination to remain a dominant player in the region.


Ah, Mr. Sec. of DEEE fense ..... that has been tried before ..... The Colonial System
that was dumped a long time ago.

The Ottoman empire .... that too is over.

So what are you talking about "the crusades?"

Let me know when the grown ups are back in power.

[Skink]

4. Didn't the grownups take over for Clinton?

[MadMaddie]

3. Another dumbass in a powerful position...typical of this administrations

picks.

[aquart]

5. At least, not for the next two years.

[goforit]

6. They just refuse to give up those oil rigs.

[Dean Martin]

7. I can't believe

How amazingly, the people in power in this nation continue to become even more and more stupid. Partylessinohio has already summed up anything else I can say.

[IndianaGreen]

8. And we replaced the neocon Rumsfeld with this neocon?

Iran is staying put by virtue of geography. For the US to remain a"dominant player" in the region means that we will have to have troops in Iraq and elsewhere in perpetuity. How many new parents will tell their newborns that when they grow up they will be soldiers in the Middle East in order to maintain American dominance in the region. What kind of crappy future is that to bestow on future generations?

[bemildred]

9. Iran does not want you to leave, dimwit. nt